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Theosophy And Christianity
Christianity and Theosophy, for more than a hundred years, have had a "complex and sometimes troubled" relationship. The Christian faith was the native religion of the great majority of Western Theosophists, but many came to Theosophy through a process of opposition to Christianity. According to professor Robert S. Ellwood, "the whole matter has been a divisive issue within Theosophy." Beliefs God According to the Theosophical spiritual Masters, neither their philosophy nor themselves believe in a God, "least of all in one whose pronoun necessitates a capital H." A Russian Orthodox cleric and theologian Dimitry Drujinin cited the Theosophical Master Kuthumi: "We know there is in our olarsystem no such thing as God, either personal or impersonal. Parabrahm is not a God, but absolute immutable law... The word 'God' was invented to designate the unknown cause of those effects which man has either admired or dreaded without understanding them." A religious studies scholar Al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Annie Besant
Annie Besant ( Wood; 1 October 1847 – 20 September 1933) was a British socialist, theosophist, freemason, women's rights activist, educationist, writer, orator, political party member and philanthropist. Regarded as a champion of human freedom, she was an ardent supporter of both Irish and Indian self-rule. She was also a prolific author with over three hundred books and pamphlets to her credit. As an educationist, her contributions included being one of the founders of the Banaras Hindu University. For fifteen years, Besant was a public proponent in England of atheism and scientific materialism. Besant's goal was to provide employment, better living conditions, and proper education for the poor. Besant then became a prominent speaker for the National Secular Society (NSS), as well as a writer, and a close friend of Charles Bradlaugh. In 1877 they were prosecuted for publishing a book by birth control campaigner Charles Knowlton. The scandal made them famous, and Bradla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Avatar
Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearance" is sometimes used to refer to any guru or revered human being. The word ''avatar'' does not appear in the Vedic literature; however, it appears in developed forms in post-Vedic literature, and as a noun particularly in the Puranic literature after the 6th century CE. Despite that, the concept of an avatar is compatible with the content of the Vedic literature like the Upanishads as it is symbolic imagery of the Saguna Brahman concept in the philosophy of Hinduism. The ''Rigveda'' describes Indra as endowed with a mysterious power of assuming any form at will. The ''Bhagavad Gita'' expounds the doctrine of Avatara but with terms other than ''avatar''. Theologically, the term is most often associated with the Hindu god Vishnu, though th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comparative Religion
Comparative religion is the branch of the study of religions with the systematic comparison of the doctrines and practices, themes and impacts (including migration) of the world's religions. In general the comparative study of religion yields a deeper understanding of the fundamental philosophical concerns of religion such as ethics, metaphysics and the nature and forms of salvation. It also considers and compares the origins and similarities shared between the various religions of the world. Studying such material facilitates a broadened and more sophisticated understanding of human beliefs and practices regarding the sacred, numinous, spiritual and divine. In the field of comparative religion, a common geographical classification of the main world religions distinguishes groups such as Middle Eastern religions (including Iranian religions), Indian religions, East Asian religions, African religions, American religions, Oceanic religions, and classical Hellenist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wouter J
Wouter is a Dutch masculine given name popular in the Netherlands and Belgium. It is the Dutch equivalent of the English name Walter and French name Gauthier, both of Germanic origin, meaning "ruler of the army", "army of the forest" or "bright army". Wouter is sometimes shortened to Wout. The patronymic surname of Wouter is Wouters. People named Wouter Sports *Wouter olde Heuvel, Dutch speed skater *Wouter Claes, Belgian badminton player *Wouter Mol, Dutch professional road racing cyclist *Wouter Toledo, Dutch figure skater * Wouter Poels, Dutch professional road bicycle racer *Wout van Aert, Belgian professional cyclist *Wouter Wippert, Dutch professional road racing cyclist *Wouter Jolie, Dutch field hockey player *Wouter Brouwer, Dutch fencer *Wouter van Pelt, Dutch field hockey player *Wouter Corstjens, Dutch-Belgian footballer *Wouter D'Haene, Belgian sprint canoer *Wouter Biebauw, Belgian footballer *Wouter Marinus, Dutch professional footballer *Wouter de Vogel, Dutch footb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nikolai Berdyaev
Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev (; russian: Никола́й Алекса́ндрович Бердя́ев; – 24 March 1948) was a Russian Empire, Russian philosopher, theologian, and Christian existentialism, Christian existentialist who emphasized the existentialism, existential spiritual significance of Personalism, human freedom and the human person. Alternative historical spellings of his surname in English include "Berdiaev" and "Berdiaeff", and of his given name "Nicolas" and "Nicholas". Biography Nikolai Berdyaev was born at Obukhiv, Obukhovo, Kiev Governorate (present-day Obukhiv, Ukraine) in 1874, in an aristocracy, aristocratic military family. His father, Alexander Mikhailovich Berdyaev, came from a long line of Russian nobility. Almost all of Alexander Mikhailovich's ancestors served as high-ranking military officers, but he resigned from the army quite early and became active in the social life of the aristocracy. Nikolai's mother, Alina Sergeevna Berdyaeva, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Occult
The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism and their varied spells. It can also refer to supernatural ideas like extra-sensory perception and parapsychology. The term ''occult sciences'' was used in 16th-century Europe to refer to astrology, alchemy, and natural magic. The term ''occultism'' emerged in 19th-century France, amongst figures such as Antoine Court de Gébelin. It came to be associated with various French esoteric groups connected to Éliphas Lévi and Papus, and in 1875 was introduced into the English language by the esotericist Helena Blavatsky. Throughout the 20th century, the term was used idiosyncratically by a range of different authors, but by the 21st century was commonly employed – including by academic scholars of esotericism – to refer to a range of e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emanationism
Emanationism is an idea in the cosmology or cosmogony of certain religious or philosophical systems. Emanation, from the Latin ''emanare'' meaning "to flow from" or "to pour forth or out of", is the mode by which all things are derived from the first reality, or principle. All things are derived from the first reality or perfect God by steps of degradation to lesser degrees of the first reality or God, and at every step the emanating beings are less pure, less perfect, less divine. Emanationism is a transcendent principle from which everything is derived, and is opposed to both creationism (wherein the universe is created by a sentient God who is separate from creation) and materialism (which posits no underlying subjective and/or ontological nature behind phenomena being immanent). Origins Emanationism is a cosmological theory which asserts that all things "flow" from an underlying principle or reality, usually called the Absolute or Godhead. Any teachings which involve emanati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Absolute (philosophy)
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends across the entire range of contemporary philosophical topics, from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political philosophy, the philosophy of history, philosophy of art, philosophy of religion, and the history of philosophy. Born in 1770 in Stuttgart during the transitional period between the Enlightenment and the German Romanticism, Romantic movement in the Germanic regions of Europe, Hegel lived through and was influenced by the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars. His fame rests chiefly upon ''The Phenomenology of Spirit'', ''The Science of Logic'', and his lectures at the University of Berlin on topics from his ''Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences''. Throughout his work, Hegel strove to address and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Personal God
A personal god, or personal goddess, is a deity who can be related to as a person, instead of as an impersonal force, such as the Absolute, "the All", or the "Ground of Being". In the scriptures of the Abrahamic religions, God is described as being a personal creator, speaking in the first person and showing emotion such as anger and pride, and sometimes appearing in anthropomorphic shape.Williams, W. Wesley, "A study of anthropomorphic theophany and Visio Dei in the Hebrew Bible, the Quran and early Sunni Islam", University of Michigan, March 2009 In the Pentateuch, for example, God talks with and instructs his prophets and is conceived as possessing volition, emotions (such as anger, grief and happiness), intention, and other attributes characteristic of a human person. Personal relationships with God may be described in the same ways as human relationships, such as a Father, as in Christianity, or a Friend as in Sufism. A 2008 survey by the Pew Research Center reported t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Catholic Encyclopedia
The ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'' (also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedia'') is an English-language encyclopedia published in the United States and designed to serve the Catholic Church. The first volume appeared in March 1907 and the last three volumes appeared in 1912, followed by a master index volume in 1914 and later supplementary volumes. It was designed "to give its readers full and authoritative information on the entire cycle of Catholic interests, action and doctrine". The ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' was published by the Robert Appleton Company (RAC), a publishing company incorporated at New York in February 1905 for the express purpose of publishing the encyclopedia. The five members of the encyclopedia's Editorial Board also served as the directors of the company. In 1912 the company's name was changed to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Secret Doctrine
''The Secret Doctrine, the Synthesis of Science, Religion and Philosophy'', is a pseudo-scientific esoteric book originally published as two volumes in 1888 written by Helena Blavatsky. The first volume is named ''Cosmogenesis'', the second ''Anthropogenesis''. It was an influential example of the revival of interest in esoteric and occult ideas in the modern age, in particular because of its claim to reconcile ancient eastern wisdom with modern science. Proponents widely claim the literature contains clues as to how the nature of prayer was 'covered' and expunged from common wisdom, except for those with a keen-eye. The book has been criticized for promoting pseudoscientific concepts and for borrowing those from other systems. Volume one (Cosmogenesis) In Volume One, Blavatsky details her interpretation of the origin and evolution of the universe itself, in terms derived from the Hindu concept of cyclical development. The world and everything in it is said to alternate betwee ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
