Skip to content
University of St Andrews
Theological Puzzles
  • About
  • Issues
  • Contribute

Issues

Issue 12

  • Can Dual-Process Theory Explain the Ambiguity of the Notion of Faith in the New Testament? by Pavel Butakov
  • Are Conscientious Objections Always Acts of Conscience? by Christina Lamb
  • What Might the Christian Tradition Learn From Neurobiology of Social Play? by Philip Miti
  • How Might Ash’arī Theologians Respond to the Evolutionary Debunking Argument Against Metaethical Realism? by Sherif Salem
  • How Might Ritual Serve as a Medium of Exchange Between Forms of Rationality? by Lawrence A. Whitney
  • How Can Attachment Theory Inform Feminist Soteriologies? by Natalia Marandiuc
  • Do Evolutionary Explanations of Religion Undermine Humanity’s Ability to Justify Beliefs in a Personal God? by Christopher Bennett
  • Does Inter-Group Bias Render an Ecclesiology Which Embraces Out-Groups Impossible? by Tobias Tanton

Issue 11

  • How Can Bread and Wine Change Into Flesh and Blood? by Ariel Dempsey
  • Can the Social Sciences Help to Facilitate Interreligious Dialogue through the Lens of Spirit Possession? by David Bradnick
  • Do Affective States Appraise Evidence, Especially Evidence Relevant to Religious Belief? by Jason McMartin and Timothy Pickavance
  • Are Evangelicalism’s Theological Beliefs Coherent with the Eugenic Philosophy that Lent Support to Mass Incarceration? by Jason S. Sexton
  • Can Forgiveness be a Therapeutic Benefit to the Victim and Remain its Integrity as a Theological Virtue? by Hannah James

Issue 10

  • Spiritual Prescribing – In the Turf War Between Religion and Science, Who Gets to Help the Suffering? by Gillian Straine
  • Can a Constructionist Theory of Emotions Clarify the Role of the Psalter in Spiritual Formation? by Nathan Chambers
  • Can Psychology Help Resolve the Problem of Imitating a Putatively Non-Present Christ? by Eric Yang
  • Which Moral Theologians Should Care About Intersex-Selective Abortion? by Rashad Rehman
  • Is Despair Contrary to or Necessary for Faith? by T. R. Baylor

Issue 9

  • Do Humans Have a Reliable Conscience? by Matthew Braddock
  • Does Embodied Cognition Support a Hylomorphic View of the Soul? by Rebekah Wallace
  • Can the Science of Symbiosis Come to Inform Theological Ethics? by Chris Durante
  • What Role Should Near-Death Experiences Play in the Lives of Those Who Have Undergone Them? by Alexandru Manafu
  • Can Christ’s Empathy Help Trauma Survivors Who Feel Alienated from God? by Preston Hill and Dan Sartor

Issue 8

  • Can Modern Psychology Shed Light on How We Might Best Give Our Attention to Both God and Others? by Derek King
  • Can Evolutionary Biology Help to Render Natural Law Approaches to Sexual Ethics More Affirming of Non-Heterosexual Relationships? by Megan Loumagne Ulishney
  • Is Natural Knowledge of God Real If Nonresistant Nonbelief Is? by Lari Launonen
  • Does the Automaticity in Human Behaviour Undermine Human Moral Responsibility? by Simon Kittle
  • Is Maximus Confessor’s Doctrine of the Logoi of Creation Compatible with the Emerging Field of Biomimicry? by Chris Durante

Issue 7

  • Is Evolution Even Possible in Islamic Thought? by Shoaib Malik
  • What are the Conditions of Reliable Discernment? by Martin Westerholm
  • What is Intersex? A Reply to Perry’s Applied Moral Theology of Sex, Intersex and Ordination by Rashad Rehman
  • How Can Joy be a Divine Command if it is not Within Our Control? by Matthew Kuan Johnson and Rachel Siow Robertson
  • Can Evolved Biological Teleology Provide Evidence of Design? by Erkki Vesa Rope Kojonen

Issue 6

  • How Might Experimental Philosophy and Ethics Help to Solve the Problem of Divine Manipulation? by Aku Visala
  • What are the Theological Implications of Understanding Gestures as a Fundamental Part of Language and Thought? by Paul Arnold
  • Does Embryology Elucidate a Traducianist View of the Origin of the Soul? by Joanna Leidenhag
  • Can Moral Psychology Resolve Public Conflicts in Christian Morality? by Stephen Waldron
  • Can Neuroscience Aid in Establishing an Islamic View of Death? by Muhammad Mansur Ali

Issue 5

  • Does Artificial Intelligence Change Our Understanding of the Imago Dei? by Sara Lumbreras
  • Does the Evolution of Altruism Pose a Challenge to Christian Anthropology? by Lluis Oviedo
  • Can a Social Identity Approach Shed Light on the Relationship Between Personal Identity and Identity in Christ? by D. T. Everhart
  • Can the Eastern Orthodox Doctrine of Theosis Aid in Grounding Organismic Teleology (and vice versa)? by Mikael Leidenhag
  • Is the Problem of Evil Made Worse by the Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics? by Emily-Qureshi Hurst

Issue 4

  • Can Cognitive Science Inform Practical and Disability Theology Regarding the Religious Experience of High-Functioning Autistic People? by Tanja Horvat and Saša Horvat
  • Might a Disruptive Episode Involving Hearing Voices Be Both a Mental Illness and a Genuine Religious Experience? by Tasia Scrutton
  • Do Non-Literal Readings of Adam, Eve and the Fall in Islamic Scripture in Light of Evolution Entail Hermeneutic Scientism? by Shoaib Malik
  • How Might Grafting Elucidate Our Understanding of the Indwelling Relation of the Holy Spirit and the Human Person? by Kimberley Kroll
  • Can the Tools of Social-Cognitive Psychology Inform Spiritual Formation Practices? by Brittany Tausen and Katherine Douglass

Issue 3

  • Are There Empirically Informed Solutions to the Problem of Religious Disagreement? by Kirk Lougheed
  • Is Moral Bioenhancement Permissible on Luther’s View of Sin and Redemption? by Stefan Lindholm
  • Do Recent Findings in the Psychology of Habit Formation Contradict Christian Moral Wisdom on Virtue Formation? by Timothy Pawl
  • Can Theology Help Us Understand the Human Role in Environmental Restoration? by Bethany Sollereder
  • Can Organismic Biology Ease a Seeming Tension between Natural Law Theory and Evolutionary Biology? by Mikael Leidenhag

Issue 2

  • Can Shared Intentionality Theory Help Bridge the Gap between Relational and Structural Views of the Image of God? by Daniel W. Houck
  • How are the Group Character Traits of Christian Churches Related to the Well-Being of Congregants? by T. Ryan Byerly
  • Can a Period of Mental Distress be Both a Dark Night of the Soul and a Mental Illness at the Same Time? by Tasia Scrutton
  • Can the Presence of God be an Object of Joint Attention? by Joshua Cockayne and Gideon Salter
  • Can Intersex Persons be Ordained as Catholic Priests? by John Perry

Issue 1

  • Does God Need a Body to Keep the Score of Trauma? by Preston Hill
  • Should We Understand Grace in Altruistic or in Reciprocal Terms? by Alexander Massmann
  • Is it Just for God to Damn for Sins which have Evolutionary Causes? by Daniel J. Pedersen
  • What Might Time in Quantum Mechanics Mean for the Doctrine of Salvation? by Emily Qureshi-Hurst and Anna Pearson
  • Does the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit Require a Neurotypical Brain? by Joanna Leidenhag

© The University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013532.

  • Cookie policy
  • Accessibility statement
  • Terms and conditions
  • Website help
  • YouTube

Cookie preferences