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Guest Lectures
THE
TELEOLOGICAL IMPERATIVE
Oskar Gruenwald, Ph.D., JIS Editor-in-Chief
This guest
lecture proposes that the human quest for meaning, self-realization, and
self-transcendence via the moral "ought" as the proper end, purpose, or goal
for man constitutes the teleological imperative. This pan-human quest for
universal touchstones for values and truths should thus be the focus of both
moral education and cultural renewal. Central to this quest is a
re-conceptualization of virtue ethics as radically transcending the social
construction of reality. Virtue may be fully understood only within the
larger parameters of natural right or natural law, which posit an underlying
moral order in Creation, independently of, and preceding, human perception
and cognition. The right ordering of the human soul or self reflects the
larger cosmological order of the universe, and its fulfillment in the Golden
Rule or the Tao, the Judeo-Christian traditions expressed in the
Decalogue, and the New Testament's call for charity.
Lead
essay published in
JIS XIX 2007: 1-18.
To schedule a presentation at your college or
university, contact:
Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
1065 Pine Bluff Dr., Pasadena, CA 91107, USA
Phone: 1-626-351-0419; E-mail:
info@JIS3.org |
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THE
PILGRIM AS WITNESS:
C. S. LEWIS' ESSENTIAL
CHRISTIANITY Explores
the conceptual foundations of C. S. Lewis=
pilgrimage to a Christian worldview and its implications for Christian
scholarship in the Third Millennium. Lewis=
essential Christian worldview has three distinct yet complementary strands:
The Tao, Natural Law, or the moral sense; the ecumenical
inspiration of Mere Christianity;
and the quest for truth and authentic values in the real world. These three
strands converge in Lewis= own
pilgrimage and witness to the immediacy and relevance of religious
experience. Curiously, the reality and truth of the Christian vision finds
eloquent exposition in Lewis' lucid prose. In the recounting of this
consummate story-teller, the Christian worldview emerges as both real and
transcendental or Anuminous,@
whose truth is found in historical evidences and lived experience. It is for
this reason that Lewis is aptly called an apostle to the sceptics. Lewis'
literary imagination thus provides inspiration for a Christian humanist
paideia
as propaedeutic to renew both liberal arts education and the
culture of liberalism.
Guest Lecture at Grove City College, 2000, co-sponsored by
GCC Career Services, Lambda Iota Tau-International English Literature
Honorary and Student Government Association. Published in:
JIS XIV 2002: 1-24. |
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