Oskari Juurikkala

This article establishes a dialogue between the work of David Yaden and Andrew Newberg in The Varieties of Spiritual Experience (2023) and the philosophical-theological framework of Thomas Aquinas. Drawing on three key categories from the book – the triggers of spiritual experiences, their classification into six types (numinous, revelatory, synchronic, mystical, aesthetic, and paranormal), and their transformative outcomes – we employ Thomistic concepts such as hylomorphism, the person as capax Dei, the nature-grace relationship, extraordinary spiritual gifts, and the role of the will in the acquisition of virtues, to show how the Thomistic approach brings light to contemporary research on spiritual experience and is open to learning from new data.

This article outlines the patristic understanding of the book of nature. It highlights the ideas of the logoi of creation and the contemplation of nature as the basis for the Fathers’ theology of nature as a divine book. It explores a variety of themes in the book of nature, especially the knowledge of God and the use of nature as a place of loving dialogue with God. It finally argues that the book of nature is not a sufficient principle on its own and explains how this affects the patristic understanding of natural law. The article ends by showing how the liturgical orientation of nature is another way in which nature and Scripture are parallel principles that are called to transcend their own limitations and find their fullness in Christ.

The hemisphere hypothesis suggests that the brain is tuned to two complementary ways of attending to reality, the global-intuitive right hemisphere mode and the focal-analytic left hemisphere mode. I explore ways of applying this hypothesis to intellectual virtues and virtue epistemology in the context of religion. I argue that the right hemisphere approach is the key to understanding narratives, myths, and rituals and to grasping the relational and ethical dimensions of religion. The left hemisphere contributes to conceptual and doctrinal clarity as well as to the communicability of religions. I further argue that the right hemisphere is connected to virtues of dependence (humility, deference, and trust), virtues of the new and the unknown (open-mindedness and curiosity), and understanding. The left hemisphere mode is important for intellectual autonomy and virtues of rigor (inquisitiveness and criticism) as well as intellectual perseverance.

The book of nature is among the most enduring theological metaphors. It has also been used extensively by recent Popes, from John Paul II to Francis. However, it has not been widely recognized that Pope Benedict XVI developed a wide-ranging and harmonious theology of the book of nature in series of documents and discourses. In this article, I provide an analysis of the various ways in which Pope Benedict spoke about the book of nature, highlighting the various themes covered, including science and religion, the natural law, the liturgy, and the theology of religions. I also discuss the theological underpinnings of Pope Benedict's employment of the metaphor. I argue that, instead of seeing creation merely as the first stage of revelation, he thinks of the books of nature and Scripture developing in dialogue and finding their fullness in Christ.

Augustine is considered one of the originators of the metaphor of the book of nature, but what did he say about it? This article examines all the metaphors with which Augustine seems to refer to the visible world as a divine book. It is found that four of the often-cited passages have a different meaning, but two of them refer to sensible nature as a book. The article further explores how the idea of God’s two books – nature and Scripture – influences Augustine’s literal interpretation of Genesis and his trinitarian theology. Finally, it argues that the ultimate foundation for the Augustinian book of nature should be sought in his theology of the Word.

This paper defends a normative basis for entrepreneurial ventures, and draws the conclusion that any enterprise, insofar as it is reasonable, has in final analysis to be a (free) gift to promote good. Building on Herbert Simon's idea of "satisficing" and developing it in line with axiological insights of the new classical natural law theory, this paper makes the argument that a choice to proceed reasonably in any entrepreneurial venture will be guided by rationality that is bounded. Bounded rationality entails that the various end-values or goals of the venture will be incommensurable, and this implies that (1) the enterprise need not be locked in on promoting merely one value, such as profits, and (2) a choice to aim at one or more goals will be a personal (free) gift, which is ethically valuable. This paper has appeared in Spanish translation as El don personal en las empresas sanas: racionalidad limitada, valores incommensurables y agencia economica in Revista Empresa y Humanismo, Vol. XI no. 1 (2008), pp. 67-88, published by the Institute for Business and Humanism, University of Navarra, Spain. Permission granted to reproduce/publish the original English version here and elsewhere.