THEOLOGICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL
BIOGRAPHY AND GLOSSARY

NAIVE:

See Naive realism

NAIVE REALISM:

Also called Common-sense realism. Things are perceived directly as they are.

NATURAL:

See Natural law; and Natural theology

NATURAL LAW:

* (ethics)

NATURAL SELECTION:

Darwin's view of evolution with five principles: 1. Proliferation of species; 2. Variation; 3. Struggle for existence; 4. Survival of the fittest; 5. Heredity.

NATURAL THEOLOGY:

*

NATURALISM:

Every aspect of human experience can be adequately accounted for in terms of human existence as a product of biological and cultural evolution. Also see Humanism, Religious; and Ethical naturalism

NATURALISTIC:

See Naturalistic ethics

NATURALISTIC ETHICS:

*

NATURALISTIC-FALLACY:

See Naturalistic-fallacy argument

NATURALISTIC-FALLACY ARGUMENT:

*

NATURE:

See State of nature

Nazianzus:

See Gregory of Nazianzus

Neander, Johann August Wilhelm:

(1789-1850) German church historian; founder of modern church historiography.

NECESSARY:

See a priori; Necessity; Necessary being; Necessary condition; and Necessary statements

NECESSARY BEING:

*

NECESSARY CONDITION:

*

NECESSARY CONNECTION:

See Necessity *

NECESSARY KNOWLEDGE:

see a priori.

NECESSARY STATEMENTS:

* See Synthetic statements necessary or empirical

NECESSITY:

See Necessity, logical or metaphysical

NECESSITY, LOGICAL:

See Necessity, logical or metaphysical

NECESSITY, LOGICAL OR METAPHYSICAL:

*

NECESSITY, METAPHYSICAL:

See Necessity, logical or metaphysical

Nee, Henry (Watchman [pseud.]):

(1903-1972) Chinese preacher; wrote The Normal Christian Life and many other books.

Neill, Stephen Charles:

(1900-1984) British Anglican missionary, educator, writer.

NEO-ARISTOTELIANISM:

See Neo-Thomism

NEO-FREUDIANISM:

says "Religion is any system of thought and action shared by a group which gives the individual a frame of orientation and an object of devotion" (Fromm). Also see Freudianism

NEO-HEGELIAN:

*

NEO-KANTIAN:

An updated version of Kant's view

NEO-KANTIANISM:

*

NEO-ORTHODOXY:

Derived from the existentialism of Kierkegaard. Stresses the existential and psychological aspects of religion. Opposes biblical literalism, propositional revelation, natural theology, and all forms of religious humanism. "Scripture is only revelation when conjoined with God's Spirit in the present" (Brunner). Knowledge of God is not grasped by reason but through an act of God's personal self-disclosure (Word of God). Reasserts and reinterprets the role of sin in religious understanding and in the problems of the human situation. It says religion is man's striving to make himself righteous before that which he recognizes as ultimate and decisive (Barth). Also see Protestant neo-orthodoxy; and Protestant neo-orthodoxy *

NEO-PLATONISM:

*

NEO-REALISM:

See New Realism

NEO-SCHOLASTICISM:

See Neo-Thomism

NEO-THOMISM:

also called Neo-Scholasticism. Restates the philosophy of religion of St. Thomas Aquinas. Religious knowledge is a product of reason completed by revelation. An independently real world is known by independently real minds. Stresses natural theology and theism. Teaches that God possesses all the qualities of perfection. The Bible as interpreted by the Church is authoritative.

Nestorius:

(d. 451) Patriarch of Constantinople; confronted heretics; died in exile.

NEW ARISTOTELIANISM:

See Neo-Thomism

NEW ENGLAND:

See New England theology

NEW ENGLAND THEOLOGY:

*

NEW KANTIANISM:

See Neo-Kantianism

NEW MATERIALISM:

The objective world known is material. Also see Materialism

NEW MORALITY:

See Situation ethics *

NEW REALISM:

The objective world known is neutral, that is, it consists of mental and material entities and objective relations as well.

Newman, John Henry:

(1801-1890) Anglican pastor; converted to Roman Catholic in 1845; wrote hymn "Lead Kindly Light."

Newton, Isaac:

(1642-1727) Christian scientist loyal to the Bible; wrote commentaries on the Bible, which he considered to be his greatest work; known for his book Mathematical Principles of Natural Theology; showed universal force called gravity; time, gravity, time were absolute; view was held until Einstein.

Newton, John:

(1725-1807) Anglican pastor; former slave trader; influenced Wilberforce against slavery; wrote "Amazing Grace." Wrote autobiography: Out of the Depths.

Newton, Joseph Fort:

(1880-1950) US pastor; changed from Southern Baptist to Congregational to Episc.

Nicholas of Cusa:

(1401-1464) German philosopher and cardinal; mystic; advocated superiority of council over the pope; tried to reunite Roman Catholic with Eastern Orthodox.

Nicole, Roger:

Professor of theology at Gordon-Conwell Th. Sem. Wrote: Moyse Amyraut: A Bibliography; editor of B. B. Warfield: A Bibliography and Inerrancy and Common Sense.

Nicoll, William Robertson:

(1851-1923) Scottish Presbyterian pastor; edited Expositor's Bible and The Expositor's Greek New Testament.

Niebuhr, Helmut Richard:

(1894-1962) US theologian; taught at Eden Seminary and Yale; US version of neo-orthodoxy; wrote 1. The Meaning of Revelation; 2. The Social Sources of Denominationalism; 3. The Kingdom of God in America; 4. Christ and Culture; 5. Radical Monotheism and Western Culture; younger brother of Reinhold.

Niebuhr, Karl Paul Reinhold:

(1892-1970) US pastor; older brother of Richard; taught at Union (NY); taught ethics at Yale; neo-orthodox; main area was ethics; wrote 1. Moral Man and Immoral Society, 2. Christian Realism and Political Problems, and 3. The Nature and Destiny of Man.

Niemoller, Martin:

(1892-1967) German protestant opposed Hitler; imprisoned at Dachau; member of World Council of Churches.

Nietzsche, Friedrich:

(1844-1900) German philosopher; atheist; early existentialist; Hitler used his view of "superman." Wrote 1. The Birth of Tragedy, 2. Beyond Good and Evil, 3. The Genealogy of Morals, 4. Thus Spake Zarathustra, and 5. The Will to Power. Western man has been corrupted by two major evils: intellectualistic philosophy and the idealization of weakness by Christianity. Both deny the natural human spirit. A transvaluation or reversal of values is needed: instead of sympathy and pity -- contempt and aloofness; instead of neighbor love -- egoism and ruthlessness. Why? "Life is precisely Will to Power the fundamental fact of all history." But the transvaluation is for "free spirits" only, for the Superman. The everyday man is a "bridge," a something to be "surpassed." The new morality is "beyond good and evil," beyond the values of the "common herd," who sublimate their resentment of the naturally superior in the form of a conventional morality that makes the virtue of superiority "evil" and their own weakness "good." Altruism is a typical "slave" ideal. The new morality embodies the realization of the natural virtues of strength and power. "The noble type of man regards himself as a determiner of values."

NIHILISM:

*

Niles, Daniel T.:

(1907-1970) Methodist; ecumenical leader.

Nitzsch, Karl:

(1787-1868) German Lutheran theologian

Noetus of Smyrna:

(c 220-c290) philosopher; held monarchianism (stressing the unity of God) and patripassianism (Jesus was actually God the Father manifested in a different form thus the Father died on the cross in the person of the Son); God is substantially one, but nominally three.

NOMINALISM:

The teaching that universals or general terms like "good" are merely names assigned to particular things which alone are real. See Axiological nominalism or Skepticism (emotivism)

NON-BEING:

*

NON-COGNITIVIST ETHICS:

a Metaethical theory that denies that ethical terms are informative. Includes Emotivism, Imperativism, Prescriptivism, and Good Reasons Theories.

NON-COGNITIVE MEANING:

See Emotivism *

NON-COGNITIVE:

See Emotivism

NON-CONTRADICTION:

See Non-contradiction, law of

NON-CONTRADICTION, LAW OF:

No entity can be both what it is and not what it is with the same specification.

NON-METAPHYSICAL:

See Non-metaphysical analysis

NON-METAPHYSICAL ANALYSIS:

*

NON-NATURALISM:

A cognitivist ethics

NON-NATURALISTIC:

See Non-naturalistic ethics

NON-NATURALISTIC ETHICS:

*

NON-OBSERVABLES:

*

NONSENSE:

* (Wisdom)

Norbert:

(1080-1134) German Roman Catholic canonized saint; founded a monastic order.

NORMATIVE:

See Normative ethics

NORMATIVE ETHICS:

an attempt to identify the universal principle(s) of morality to which all men ought to appeal to guide or to justify their behavior, i.e., an ideal or true code of morality. May be distinguished as teleological or deontological or varying combinations of both.

NOTHINGNESS:

* (Sartre)

Nott, Eliphalet:

(1773-1866) US Presbyterian President of Union College for 62 years.

NOUMENA:

* (Kant)

NOUS:

* (Anaxagoras)

Noyes, Morgan Phelps:

(1891-1972) US Presbyterian

Nyssa:

See Gregory of Nyssa

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