Wednesday 15 April 2015

Philosophy Rugby Team

Last year, for the football world cup I published the article 'Theology Football Squad', a bit of fun combining my love of theology, faith seeking understanding, and an exciting world cup. With it being the rugby world cup this year, it is the turn of philosophy to receive some sporty treatment. So in much the same fashion as before, lets see who has made this year's philosophy rugby team.


Forwards

Loosehead Prop - David Hume


There is no cause for this player to be in the team. Indeed, it would be unreasonable to conclude from past performances his future ones will be equally impressive. Yet, as his reason is clearly enslaved to his passion, the coach has selected Hume to be a fork in the other team’s side.




Hooker - Thomas Hobbes (Captain)

Nasty, brutish and short, he is perfect for the front row. A leviathan in the scrum, he can secure valuable penalties for the team. As a captain he leads as a benevolent dictator, which may come back to hurt him.








Tighthead Prop - Friedrich Nietzsche

Something of a superman, no player can contend with will of Nietzsche! Rejecting weakness, his bench press record has reached new highs. However, his moral compass seems to be awry, being cited for eye gouging.










Second Row - Thomas Aquinas

Built like an ox, this fellow is an intimidating heavyweight of classic rugby. Having developed five ways of playing second row, he is able to adapt his game accordingly. Never committing a penalty, Aquinas naturally follows the law, whilst transubstantiating ordinary teams into winning ones.







Second Row - John Locke

The perfect name for the perfect second row, Locke’s primary qualities make him a dominant force. His secondary properties, however, are a matter of dispute. Like a blank slate, he has bought into the team philosophy, albeit with conditions for a revolution.










Blindside Flanker - William James

With the will to believe, this player can always be counted upon in the most dire circumstances. He belongs to a sporting family, with his brother Henry competing in the American Football ‘Golden Bowl’ every year. A live option, James has a variety of experiences which he can bring in a pragmatic fashion to this side.





Openside Flanker - Ludwig Wittgenstein

Understanding the game, his name is part of the language of rugby. Having a familial resemblance to Richie McCaw, he has lived up to the hype. He has now progressed from his atomistic and factual approach to a more holistic attitude, but still thinks most tactical problems can be resolved linguistically.





No. 8 - Gottfried Leibniz

Quite the individual, Leibniz keeps himself to himself in monadic fashion. Many have argued it is indiscernible why he has been selected, although the coach has argued the fact he has only positive qualities entails he must play.









Backs

Scrum-Half - Aristotle

This scrum-half’s form truly doesn’t matter, as his virtues make him the first name on the team sheet. Having provided the fundamental categories of rugby itself, his efficient and purposeful approach means his performance is always one of great drama.








Fly-Half - Plato

This player’s Form is fantastic! Under the tutelage of Socrates, he has ascended from a realm of shadows to being a player of beauty, justice and the goodness. His rivalry with Aristotle may cause problems.







Inside Centre - Immanuel Kant

Categorically the most tedious player in this team, Kant’s play is very difficult to understand. However, every once in a while one will have a gestalt moment, and recognises the noumenal fact that it is imperative Kant plays. He whole heartedly performs his duty to the team, never treating them as merely a means to an end.








Outside Centre - John Rawls

A player who always finds an original position to start an attack, Rawls is an exciting player. Most critics of him are clearly not behind a veil of ignorance, as his minimum performance is always at its best. A long standing rivalry with Nozick has honed his skills for a more distributive style.









Winger - Rene Descartes

A player who personifies rugby as a thinking man’s game. A classic French winger, his constant focus on his self makes him disregard cooperative play, often treating his teammates as if they were figments of a dream. Despite that, if he gets into space he becomes like an evil demon, terrorising defences with his speed, agility and guile.







Winger - Bertand Russell

Having played for just about every team, Russell has embraced just about every tactic under the sun! He has received universal recognition and definitively described by his positive playing style. It cannot be more than a brute fact that he alone is picked every week by the coach.








Fullback - George Berkeley

Perceiving danger before it arises, he is the ideal fullback. He has a lot of attacking ideas, but struggles to connect them to reality. Has often gone missing in games when no one specifically watches him.










Coach - Socrates

He may not be the best player, but what makes Socrates the best rugby coach is that, unlike everyone else on this list, he managed to convince opponents of his position! With his friendly manner, dialectical approach and inspiring vision, he is the right man to unite a team of egotistical, dogmatic and uptight divas. 





Do you agree with the selections? Have your say in the comments below.

Sunday 8 March 2015

Who is Jesus?

Who is Jesus? Alpha Session 2
Welcome to our second session of New College’s Alpha Course. Hope you have all had good weekend, and are making good progress with any essays you have had. Last week, we looked at the topic ‘is this it?’ discussing what differences there are if there is no God and what it means if YHWH does exist. This week, we want to move on to the topic ‘who is Jesus?’ a question central to Christianity. When approaching this issue we have to be very careful because it easy to make Jesus into whom we want him to be. There is a very real danger that the Jesus we believe in is a product of our fantasy, reflecting our ideals, desires and ambitions. For example, some thinkers, such as Kant, have made Jesus a paragon of morality, not particularly interested in spirituality but rather sought to live the good life, challenging the immorality of the age and being a political revolutionary. Likewise, others have gone in the opposite direction and conceived of Christ as God in flesh whom only descended to die for our sins so we could get into heaven. If you accept all accounts he was a communist, capitalist, anarchist, political revolutionary who was a Jew, atheist, Muslim, Hindu deity, gnostic mediator who was a liar, legend, lunatic or Lord. To avoid believing in a Jesus of our imagination, it is important that when answering who Jesus is to ground it in what he said and did historically, starting from what he said about himself and his actions. This is what I intend to do in the next few minutes.
It is striking that through his public career, Jesus was so concerned with the impending arrival of ‘the Kingdom of God’. Indeed, in the Gospel according to Mark, after being baptised and spending 40 days in the wilderness, he returns to begin his ministry proclaiming: ‘"The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!"’ (Mark 1:15). To put this in context, the Jewish people had been in exile, conquered by the Babilonians and now the Romans. This was their punishment for rebelling against God, the rightful sovereign of all nations. We can see this in the prophets, such as Isaiah or Zechariah. This period had been one of great injustice and suffering, with all manner of wickedness being inflicted with the absence of God. However, YHWH had promised to return as King of Israel. He would be exalted amongst the nations, completeing our joy by being the subject of our praise and gratitude. In turn, this worship of the Lord would bring a rule which is just: all evil will be overthrown. Moreover, this kingdom will transform the world with healing love. The people of the kingdom will no longer suffer, and they will be satisfied in the Lord. All life and joy will be theirs, flowing from the heavenly throne of God, king of the world. Those who were weak, marginalised and ill-treated would have a place in the Lord’s kingdom, where all are welcome and loved unconditionally. The idols of the world, sex power wealth and honour, would be overthrown, and the true God confessed by every tongue.
This is what Jesus’ mission was about. He thought he was the agent who God was using to bring in the kingdom. We can see this in all he did: he constantly taught people what the kingdom of God is like through parables; he healed the sick (blind, deaf, paralysed, demons and leprosy), a sign of God’s healing love; he accepted and embraced the rejects and marginalised, a sign of the unconditional love of God for all and His desire to include us in His kingdom; He forgave sins, the guilt which would prevent us from entering His dominion; He was constantly feasting and celebrating, as the Kingdom will be like a great meal where none will go hungry and all will be satisfied; he performed great miracles as signs of the bountifulness and power of God. This is incredibly exciting: Jesus was bringing a transforming rule of love to the world, the person through whom God was making himself king, with all the joy that brings.
But how precisely was God doing this through Jesus? This leads to Jesus’ self-designation of himself as ‘the Son of Man’, a title which his Jewish audience understood as identifying him within the unique identity of God. He applied it to himself more than 80 times in the New Testamet, as the rest of the New Testament does not refer to him by this title, we can be sure it is his idea. The title alludes to a divine figure in the book of Daniel: in a vision Daniel sees God defeat the evil powers of the world, and in doing so is rightfully lifted up and exalted, worshipped and praised as the true God of the cosmos. Daniel then observes the following:
13“I kept looking in the night visions,
         And behold, with the clouds of heaven
         One like a Son of Man was coming,
         And He came up to the Ancient of Days
         And was presented before Him.

14“And to Him was given dominion,
         Glory and a kingdom,
         That all the peoples, nations and men of every language
         Might serve Him.
         His dominion is an everlasting dominion
         Which will not pass away;
         And His kingdom is one
         Which will not be destroyed.
It is through the Son of Man that the Ancient of Days, YHWH, achieves His victory, and so in turn the Son of Man is exalted to sovereign over all the nations. This is important, because in 2nd temple Judaism God was uniquely the creator and sovereign of all things: only He was ruler of all things, worthy of worship and servitude. By giving over to the Son of Man dominion everlasting, glory and a kingdom, the Son of Man is recognised as a part of the unique divine identity of YHWH, sharing in the name above all others and worthy of praise (Phillipians 2:6-11). This is who Jesus claims to be, the one through whom the victory of God will be made complete, and hence why he can heal the sick, forgive sins, welcome the lost, teach with authority and overthrow the powers of darkness. And as the book of Isaiah alludes to, God’s exaltation will be achieved through the humiliation of the suffering servant – Christ (Deutero-Isaiah). So to conquer evil, Jesus accept his humiliation. We see this in the cross, Christ becomes a curse on a tree for us. His death satisfies the wrath of God for our wrongs, whose punishment is death. This allows us to enter the Kingdom on His account, not our own – he died for our wrongs. He himself explains in the Gospels explains that the Son of Man, himself, will die for the sins of the world, and in doing so will be lifted up. It is this which conquers the power of sin, freeing humanity from its grasp by his human suffering.
But it is in the resurrection we see the final victory won. Death is the ultimate power of evil, a kingdom of its own, ensnaring all life and separating it from the joy of God. Jesus death and resurrection not only freed humanity from sin, but also overthrew the grip of death, and in so doing God’s victory over the world’s powers was complete. It is this, the resurrection, which gives Christians hope, as we can be assured that a) God is victorious and His kingdom will come b) Jesus is who he says he is. If he did not rise from the dead, then Jesus was either a liar or a lunatic, a man clearly deranged, thinking himself to be in the unique identity of God. Indeed, the Pharisees and chief priests thought he was blaspheming, offending God with nonsense. By rising from the dead, Jesus is shown to be the Son of Man, the first and the last, the great I am, the Lord himself come among us to bring His kingdom to the world. The Lord’s Prayer is answered in this great saga, and Jesus is the bringer of it. Jesus challenges the sin and death of the world, the tyrants and evil powers with the rule of God, which has overthrown all evil and is here amongst us now. We wait for His return, to bring about the end times and the consummation of the inaugurated Kingdom. And we can enter this by placing our trust in Him: that his death does satisfy our sin and His resurrection frees us to worship YHWH freely. That is the invitation which faces us all in the person of Jesus.

Do you agree? Is Jesus really the bringer of the kingdom of God, a key part of the identity of God? Do you think Jesus, the God-man, supplies the victory of YHWH over the evils of the world and frees us from sin and death?