Nature and existence of God Books

Book SynopsisMany contemporary feminists believe that early humans worshipped a nurturing Mother Goddess, who was subsequently displaced by autocratic male deities. In this book Motz examines the maternal deities of various cultures and religions and finds no signs of a common origin, and thus no evidence for a primordial "Great Mother." Her conclusions stand in stark contradiction to the prevailing view.Trade Review"At last: a book that explains that the notion of a unitary Mother Goddess is modern, and that female culture was not driven out by patriarchy. But even more important is the positive contribution that this book makes to the understanding of the nature of ancient female divinities, which were more diverse and potent than modern writers have imagined them to be. Instead of being restricted to motherhood, the various goddesses worshipped in the ancient world displayed the full range of feminine powers, both constructive and destructive, and commanded the respect of both men and women."--Mary Lefkowitz, Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities, Wellesley College. "I have no doubt that this volume will become an important landmark in the comparative study of religion."--James Preston, Anthropology and Religious Studies, SUNY Oneonta "In The Faces of the Goddess Lotte Motz at last rescues a number of goddesses from the murky Jungian limbo to which many previous studies have consigned them, a place in which all goddesses look alike in the dark; in so doing she restores to each of them the dignity of their individual power and fascination, and provides both a sound scholarly basis for our understanding of them and a wide gamut of far more visible, because more nuanced, models for contemporary women to emulate."--Wendy Doniger "Dr. Motz has offered us here a well-documented, nicely written and presented, duly diversified image of the multifaceted archetype of the Mother-Goddess."--Edgar C. Polome, University of Texas as Austin "Lotte Motz combines a superb knowledge of mythology with the gift for making age-old problems look fresh. She loves polemic, but it is the quest for the most convincing solution, rather than controversy for controversy's sake, that inspires her work."--Anatoly Liberman, University of Minnesota "I consider the book an usually important contribution, one that should be read and pondered by anyone interested in the study of religion, and one that should have a lasting effect on the field."--Thorkild Jacobsen, former Director of the Oriental Institute, Chicago, and author of The Treasures of Darkness "Faces of the Goddess offers a necessary antidote against romantic or Jungian Mother mysticism."--Walter Burkert, Professor of Classics, the University of Zurich, and author of Greek Religion "A useful warning about trendy spirituality."--Alan Cochrum, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

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Book SynopsisThis book attempts to resolve one of the oldest and bitterest controversies between the Eastern and Western Christian churches: namely, the dispute about the doctrine of deification. A. N. Williams examines two key thinkers, each of whom is championed as the authentic spokesman of his own tradition and reviled by the other. Taking Aquinas as representative of the West and Gregory Palamas for the East, she presents fresh readings of their work that both reinterpret each thinker and show an area of commonality between them much greater than has previously been acknowledged.Trade ReviewA fine example of intrareligious dialogue: taking up an issue which has led to division and schism within a particular religion ... written in a lucid and at times lightly humorous style - a refreshing element not often found in works of this sort. The work gracefully combines penetrating insight with a sometimes wry look at how theologians and philosophers arrive at their conclusions. * Studies in Interreligious Dialogue *

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Book SynopsisMonotheism is usually considered Judaism's greatest contribution to world culture, but it is far from clear what monotheism is. This work examines the notion that monotheism is not so much a claim about the number of God as a claim about the nature of God.Trade ReviewAdmirers of Kenneth Seeskin's writing in philosophy will not be disappointed with this book. * Oliver Leaman, Religious Studies, Vol. 37 *the quality of the argument and analysis in the book is first class throughout and the reader will be frequently stimulated by the approach which the author adopts. He has a real mastery of the topic, both the ancient and medieval aspects of it, together with its modern developments. and his style is entirely without mystification or redundancy. In short, the book is a pleasure to read and sets standards of exposition on this issue which it will be difficult to follow. * Oliver Leaman, Religious Studies, Vol. 37 *Kenneth Seeskin ... has bravely setout to rescue the philosophical vision of God, and has done so in an original and fascinating way ... fascinating and well argued book. * Nicholas de Lange, The Expository Times, Jan 2001, Vol. 112, No.4. *

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Book SynopsisThe Triune God, together with the second volume, The Works of God, develops a compendious statement of Christian theology in the tradition of a medieval summa, or of such modern works as those of Schleiermacher and Barth. Theology, as it is understood here, is the Christian church''s continuing discourse concerning her specific communal purpose; it is the hermeneutic and critical reflection internal to the church''s task of speaking the gospel. This volume and its successor are thus dedicated to the service of the one church of the creeds; it is for no particular denomination or confession.Trade Review"...this two-volume systematic theology is a great achievement. Drawn from learning that is both vast and profound, the rich details and frequently exciting flashes of insight provided by this work confirm the stature of Robert Jenson among contemporary theologians..."--First Things

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Book SynopsisSystematic Theology is the capstone of Robert Jenson''s long and distinguished career as a theologian, being a full-scale systematic/dogmatic theology in the classic format. This is the second and concluding volume of the work. Here, Jenson considers the works of God, examining such topics as the nature and role of the Church, and God''s works of creation.Trade Reviewin Robert Jenson the church has a most creative and thoughtful advocate. * Eric G.Flett, Themelios Vol 26:2 *Robert Jenson ... has produced an extremely readable and stimulating systematics ... Jenson forces his readers to think and makes it a pleasure to do so. Jenson covers a great deal of landscape in The Works of God and though his breadth of learning is everywhere present it is not pretentious ... Jenson moves between ecclesial traditions and academic disciplines with both ease and clarity and doe so in such a way that the issue under consideration is illumined rather than obscured ... an example of how theology should be written. * Eric G.Flett, Themelios Vol 26:2 *Jenson's work deserves a wide audience and careful reception. He has a very keen eye for presenting the 'real issue' at the heart of theological questions that have become silted with confusion and in that his presentation of the Faith has real pedagogic value. * David Moss, Reviews in Religion and Theology *We owe Robert Jenson a debt of gratitude for this sound and engaging rehearsal of the Christian faith. * David Moss, Reviews in Religion and Theology *straighforwardly theological ... Jenson is quite insightful in his treatement of creation and the human persona s well as his handling of eschatology, but he is at his best when examining all of the various issues surrounding ecclesiology. He masterfully weaves his way through such topics as the church as the body of Christ, the people of God and the communion of believers; the nature and role of the episcopacy and hierachy, and the centrality of the sacraments, especially the eucharist ... Jenson manifests both his extensive knowledge of the ecumenical scene, and his ability to offer insights that further an ecumenical consensus. * Thomas Weinandy, The Expository Times, June 2000. *an insightful and creative contribution to the contemporary theological enterprise. * Thomas Weinandy, The Expository Times, June 2000. *

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Book SynopsisWhat is it for there to be a God, and what reason is there for supposing him to conform to the claims of Christian doctrine? In this pivotal volume of his tetralogy, Richard Swinburne builds a rigorous metaphysical system for describing the world, and applies this to assessing the worth of the Christian tenets of the Trinity and the Incarnation. Part I is dedicated to analysing the categories needed to address accounts of the divine nature - these are substance, cause, time, and necessity. Part II begins by setting out, in terms of these categories, the fundamental doctrine of Western religions - that there is a God. After pointing out some of the different ways in which this doctrine can be developed, Swinburne spells out the simplest possible account of divine nature. He then goes on to clarify the implications of this account for the specifically Christian doctrines of the Trinity (that God is ''three persons in one substance'') and of the Incarnation (that God became incarnate in JTrade ReviewLike his previous works it is marked by the application of philosophically rigorous argumentation to the defence of a broadly orthodox position. This book constitutes a major contribution to philosophical thinking on the divine nature which academic theology will engage with for many years to come. * Theology. *Like his previous works it is marked by the application of philosophically rigorous argumentation to the defence of a broadly orthodox postition...this book constitutes a major contribution to philosophical thinking on the divine nature which academic theology will engage with for many years to come. * Theology *It is a book for those readers interested in the philosophy of religion ... With its sustained, progressive and convincing arguments the book is also the equivalent of a first-class dictionary of the terms of systematic theology and the philosophy of religion. * Methodist Recorder *The debate about theism's self-understanding should be greatly enhanced. * Expository Times *Swinburne's achievement - and it is no mean one - is to give a coherent contemporary account of Christian theism. * Times Higher Education Supplement *The Christian God will offer much of interest to the analytical philosopher of religion. * Themelios *This book is an elegant, incisive, provocative, lucid and concise masterpiece ... it should be required reading for theologians, both to show how difficult their discipline really is, and to expose the absurdity of the claim, still sometimes heard from non-philosophers, that metaphysics is finished ... the book is clear and powerful in argument. It is merciless to woolliness of thought, and it presents views which demand to be taken account of by contemporary theologians. It treats theology as a discipline demanding rigour. Much of it, Christians will surely think, is true, and all of it is worth-while and supremely well said, with the icy clarity and relentless precision that is the mark of much Oxford philosophy. For once the blurb is right: this will no doubt become a classic in the philosophy of religion. * New Blackfriars *His argumentation is subtle and based on extremely careful groundwork, the implications of which only gradually unfold as the work progresses. * The Philosophical Quarterly *An impressive work of sustained argumentation. Swinburne commands a very wide range of philosophical and theological ideas and never shuns hard thinking ... Swinburne's style remains crystal clear. * Religious Studies *It must be admitted that some effort must be made to understand Christian tradition in a coherent way, and that is precisely what Swinburne does. The book is therefore much to be welcomed as a thoroughly contemporary contribution to philosophy and systematic theology. * Heythrop Journal *Swinburne has become one of the eminent and celebrated practitioners of the philosophy of religion. Here, as in his other books, one finds an exceptionally careful, fresh, well-reasoned, and balanced exploration of fundamental human and religious issues. * Theological Studies *In this the third volume of his magisterial series on the philosophy of Christian doctrine, Swinburne deals with belief in the Trinity and the Incarnation. ... Unfortunately, immense scholarly erudition is incompatible neither with intellectual imcompetance nor with triviality of mind; obviously it would be invidious to cite examples, but they are legion. This only serves to set in relief Swinburne's combination of philosophical power, detailed knowledge of orthodox Christian doctrine, and just appreciation of its intellectual riches, for it is as admirable as it is rare. * The Thomist *Swinburne ... follows in this book his preferred pattern of dealing first with philosophical issues, and then applying his philosophical conclusions in a thorough, systematic and concise way to theological issues ... The Christian God is part of a series, a piece of a larger philosophical argument for the faith. However, the work is ultimately self-sufficient, and a reader with a good philosophical background or aptitude can approach The Christian God on its own terms. The book is a central work by one of the leading philosophers of religion of our day. It will be a necessary part of any college, university, or seminary library, and it will be profitably read by anyone who thinks seriously about the attributes of God and about the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation. * Ashland Theological Journal *

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Book SynopsisWhy does a loving God allow humans to suffer so much? This is one of the most difficult problems of religious belief. Richard Swinburne gives a careful, clear examination of this problem, and offers an answer: it is because God wants more for us than just pleasure or freedom from suffering. Swinburne argues that God wants humans to learn and to love, to make the choices which make great differences for good and evil to each other, to form our characters in the way we choose; above all to be of great use to each other. If we are to have all this, there will inevitably be suffering for the short period of our lives on Earth. But because of the good that God gives to humans in this life, and because he makes it possible for us, through our choice, to share the life of Heaven, he does not wrong us if he allows suffering. Providence and the Problem of Evil is the final volume of Richard Swinburne''s acclaimed tetralogy on Christian doctrine. It may be read on its own as a self-standing treaTrade ReviewThe endeavor to take each kind of evil and relate it to some good is more complete than any I have seen in any contemporary work. Especially interesting here is the discussion ... of just how surprisingly valuable our natural disposition to sloth may be. Perhaps the most important novelty of the book, though, consists in its emphasis on the value of being of use. The ramifications that this oft-overlooked value has on theodicy are substantial, and Swinburne does a real service in pointing them out. * The Philosophical Review, vol.110, no.1 *This book, the fourth in a tetralogy on philosophical questions raised by Christianity, is of the quality that readers expect of Swinburne, and will undoubtedly command the same degree of respect and attention as have his earlier works. * The Philosophical Review, vol.110, no.1 *the value of this book should not be underestimated. It provides a philosphically informed, comprehensive theodicy, sensitive to the concerns of Christian tradition, proving that the problem is not so intractable as it may first appear. This book should be required reading for all serious students of apologetics and philosophical theology. * Patrick Richmond, Themelios Vol 25:1 *Swinburne's procedure is to examine one by one the various goods that the world promises, and then to argue, with his customary care and rigour, that none of these goods can logically occur without the possibility of the related evils which in fact we experience. * Church Times *Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION; PART I: AN INITIAL PROBLEM: 1: THE NEED FOR THEODICY; PART II: THE GOOD GOALS OF CREATION: 2: BEAUTY; 3: FEELING; 4: ACTION; 5: WORSHIP; PART III: THE NECESSARY EVILS: 6: THE FACT OF MORAL EVIL; AND FREE WILL; 7: THE RANGE OF MORAL EVIL; AND RESPONSIBILITY; 8: NATURAL EVIL; AND THE SCOPE FOR RESPONSE; 9: NATURAL EVIL AND THE POSSIBILITY OF KNOWLEDGE; 10: THE EVILS OF SIN AND AGNOSTICISM; PART IV: COMPLETING THE THEODICY: 11: GOD'S RIGHTS AND THE PRIVILEGE OF SERVICE; 12: WEIGHING GOOD AGAINST BAD; EPILOGUE.

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Book SynopsisThe theme that God suffers with his world has become a familiar one in recent years, but a careful examination is needed of what it means to talk about the suffering of God, avoiding the danger of a merely sentimental belief. This book offers a consistent way of thinking about a God who suffers supremely and yet is still the kind of God to whom the Christian tradition has witnessed, and also about a God who suffers universally and yet is still present uniquely in the cross of Christ. It is at once both a survey of recent thought about the suffering of God and a proposal for a way forward in this important area of Christian theology. The author surveys four main trends of recent thought: the ''theology of the cross'' in modern German theology (as represented particularly in the work of Karl Barth, Jürgen Moltmann, and Eberhard Jüngel); American process theology; ''the death of God'' theology; and finally, the rejection of the whole idea of divine passibility by modern followers of classTrade ReviewCreation, fall, incarnation, and atonement are ... interwoven with the theme of suffering in a profoundly original way. * Theological Book Review *Paul S. Fiddes has now provided the most comprehensive and thorough study of the issues yet to emerge. His treatment of the sources is accurate and probing ... this is a valuable and thought-provoking book. * Daniel W. Hardy, Expository Times *this important survey illuminatingly explains how human suffering can be understood in the light of God's response to creation * Dan Cohn-Sherbok, University of Kent, Theology *the lasting impression of the book is of one of the livelier minds of British theology opening up, with courage and rational persuasiveness, one of the critical contemporary theological topics * David F. Ford, Journal of Theological Studies *

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Book SynopsisContinuing Keith Ward''s series on comparative religion, this book deals with religious views of human nature and destiny. The beliefs of six major traditions are presented: the view of Advaita Vedanta that there is one Supreme Self, unfolding into the illusion of individual existence; the Vaishnava belief that there is an infinite number of souls, whose destiny is to be released from material embodiment; the Buddhist view that there is no eternal Self; the Abrahamic belief that persons are essentially embodied souls; and the materialistic position that persons are complex material organisms. Indian ideas of rebirth, karma, and liberation from samsara are critically analysed and compared with semitic belief in the intermediate state of Sheol, Purgatory or Paradise, the Final Judgement and the resurrection of the body. The impact of scientific theories of cosmic and biological evolution on religious beliefs is assessed, and a form of ''soft emergent materialism'' is defended, with regaTrade ReviewThe discussions are thorough and clear ... lively text ... Ward's learning and fearless openness offer a salutory example of how the theology of religions can be conducted in a way that is at once both committed to its own tradition and sympathetic to the wisdom of others. Stongly recommended. * Paul Lakeland, Religious Studies Rev., Vol.26, No.4, Oct. 2000. *a project in several volumes that is systematic in its coverage of belief ... remarkable project ... Ward engages critically with a range of sources ... Ward presents a persuasive picture of the physical universe as 'an expression of the mind and heart of God' ... he has illuminated a range of difficult issues where Christians, including theologians, feel particularly unsure ... The three volumes so far published are a remarkable achievement and seal Keith Ward's reputation as the most productive and constructive theologian writing in English today. * Paul Avis, Anglican Theological Review, LXXXII:1 *truly a work of comparative theology, weaving in and out of the different traditions ... a penetrating analysis of many of those facile doctrines which now dominate our ontological discourse ... This is a well-written, fascinating and provocative study. It covers a wide spectrum of Christian theology and deals thoughtfully in its engagement with the increasingly fraught public conversation about what it is to be human ... his book merits serious study, not only by Christians but by anyone interested in what monotheism has to say about human nature at the beginning of the 21st century. * James C Conroy, Global Dialogue, Winter 2000 *The book is impressive for its range of coverage and depth of analytic intrigue - Revd Alan Race - Church Times - 9th July 1999Continuing his magisterial project of writing Christian theology with an eye on comparative religion, in this third book of the series the Regius Professor of Divinity turns to what we suppose we know most about:ourselves. This book is impressive for its range of coverage and depth of analytic intrigue. - Alan Race - Church Times 9/7/99Table of Contents1. Introduction ; 2. Non-Dualism (Advaita Vedanta) ; 3. The Search for the Self (Vaishnava Hinduism) ; 4. The Doctrine of Rebirth ; 5. Buddhism and the Self ; 6. Evolutionary Naturalism ; 7. The Embodied Soul ; 8. Original Sin ; 9. The Doctrine of Atonement ; 10. Salvation by Grace ; 11. The World to Come ; 12. Human Destiny in Judaism and Islam ; 13. Human Destiny in Christianity ; 14. The Ultimate End of All Things ; 15. Conclusion

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Book SynopsisWho or what is God? How do different religions interpret God''s existence? How can we know God? Many people believe in God; not just throughout history but also in the present day. But who or what is it they believe in? Many different and sometimes conflicting answers have been suggested to this question. This Very Short Introduction explores some of the answers provided by philosophers, poets, and theologians, and considers why some people believe in God and others do not.John Bowker explores how the major religions established their own distinctive beliefs about God and how they interpret God''s existence, and concludes by looking at how our understanding of God continues to evolve. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Table of Contents1. Does God exist? ; 2. Why believe in God? ; 3. The religions of Abraham: Jewish understandings of God. ; 4. The religions of Abraham: Christian understandings of God. ; 5. The religions of Abraham: Muslim understandings of God. ; 6. Religions of India ; 7. On knowing and not knowing God ; Further reading ; Index

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Book SynopsisRecounts the historical and cultural process by which Cyril of Alexandria was elevated to canonical status while his opponent, Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, was turned into a heretic. Argues that it was Cyril's mastery of rhetoric and ecclesiastical politics alike which ensured his victory over his adversary.Trade ReviewSusan Wessel has produced a learned and exciting book, that adds much to our knowledge of the character and purpose of these significant theorists of the fifth century; and the volume is a worthy addition to the excellent series of Oxford Early Christian Studies. * John McGuckin, Sobornost *I do indeed admire her assiduity. The references to the original sources are a real bonus. * L.R. Wickham, The Journal of Theological Studies *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; I. THE TAPESTRY OF CYRIL'S EPISCOPACY FROM EGYPT TO THE IMPERIAL CITY ; 1. Confrontation in the Early Episcopacy ; 2. Political Alliance and the Onset of Controversy ; 3. The Reception of Nicaea ; 4. The Meeting of the Council ; II. THE RHETORIC OF THE NESTORIAN DEBATES ; 5. Rhetorical Style and Method in the Conciliar Homilies of Cyril ; 6. The Rhetorical and Interpretive Method of Nestorius ; 7. From a Tentative Resolution to the Renewal of Controversy (431 to 451 AD) ; Epilogue

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Book SynopsisRichard Swinburne presents a substantially rewritten and updated edition of his most celebrated book. No other work has made a more powerful case for the probability of the existence of God. Swinburne gives a rigorous and penetrating analysis of the most important arguments for theism: the cosmological argument; arguments from the existence of laws of nature and the ''fine-tuning'' of the universe; from the occurrence of consciousness and moral awareness; and from miracles and religious experience. He claims that while none of these arguments are deductively valid, they do give inductive support to theism and that, even when the argument from evil is weighed against them, taken together they offer good grounds to support the probability that there is a God. The overall structure of the discussion and its conclusion have been retained for this new edition, but much has been changed in order to strengthen the argumentation and to take account of Swinburne''s subsequent work on the nature of consciousness and the problem of evil, and of the latest philosophical and scientific writing, especially in respect of the laws of nature and the argument from fine-tuning. This is now the definitive version of a classic in the philosophy of religion.Trade ReviewRichard Swinburne...over the past thirty years or so, has fashioned the most sophisticated and highly developed natural theology the world has so far seen. * Alvin Plantinga, Times Literary Supplement *...if you want Swinburne's latest thoughts, and his response to some recent developments, here they are. * R.L. Sturch, The Journal of Theological Studies *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. Inductive Arguments ; 2. The Nature of Explanation ; 3. The Justification of Explanation ; 4. Complete Explanation ; 5. The Intrinsic Probability of Theism ; 6. The Explanatory Power of Theism: General Considerations ; 7. The Cosmological Argument ; 8. Teleological Arguments ; 9. Arguments from Consciousness and Morality ; 10. The Argument from Providence ; 11. The Problem of Evil ; 12. Arguments from History and Miracles ; 13. The Argument from Religious Experience ; 14. The Balance of Probability ; Additional Note 1: The Trinity ; Additional Note 2: Recent Arguments to Design from Biology ; Additional Note 3: Plantinga's Argument Against Evolutionary Naturalism

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Book SynopsisThe Suffering of the Impassible God provides a major reconsideration of the issue of divine suffering and divine emotions in the early Church Fathers. Patristic writers are commonly criticized for falling prey to Hellenistic philosophy and uncritically accepting the claim that God cannot suffer or feel emotions. Gavrilyuk shows that this view represents a misreading of evidence. In contrast, he construes the development of patristic thought as a series of dialectical turning points taken to safeguard the paradox of God''s voluntary and salvific suffering in the Incarnation.Trade ReviewIt is heartening to read a book that one agrees with and even more so when it is a scholarly work on a controversial issue. Gavrilyuk's monograph is just such a work. * Journal of Early Christian Studies *Gavrilyuk has written an excellent book suitable not only for scholars but for students as well. * Journal of Early Christian Studies *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. Testing the fall into Hellenistic philosophy theory ; 2. The function of divine impassibility in patristic theology ; 3. The reality of Christ's suffering defended in the struggle with Docetism ; 4. Patripassian controversy: the Son, not God the Father, is the subject of the Incarnation ; 5. The orthodox response to Arianism: involvement in suffering does not diminish Christ's divinity ; 6. The case of Cyril against Nestorius: a theology of divine self-emptying ; Conclusion

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Book SynopsisIcon of modern-day fundamentalist movements, firebrand religious purist, tireless polemicist against the intellectual schools of his timeâthe Ibn Taymiyya we know is a thinker we often associate with hard attitudes and dogmatic stances. Yet there is another Ibn Taymiyya that stands out from the pages of his work, the thinker who fashions himself as a master of the via media and as a defender of the harmony between human reason and the religious faith. The aim of this book is to shed fresh light on Ibn Taymiyya''s intellectual identity by a close investigation of his ethical thought. Earlier Muslim thinkers debating ethical value had been exercised by a number of core questions. What makes actions right or wrong? How do human beings know it? And what is God''s relationship to the evaluative standards discerned by the human mind? An investigation of Ibn Taymiyya''s engagement with such questions has much to teach us about his intellectual program and particularly about the role of reason and the linchpin concept of human nature (fitra) within this program. It also has much to teach us about Ibn Taymiyya''s relationship to the intellectual landscape of his time, bringing us up against a rich tapestry of ethical discussions unfolding within theology, philosophy and legal theory in the classical period. At the same time, a close reading of Ibn Taymiyya''s ethics invites us to confront not only the content of his thought but its form, and more particularly those features of his writing that fracture our efforts to unify his thought.Trade ReviewSophia Vasalou's book sets very high standards for future scholarly research on Ibn Taymiyya's intellectual legacy. The book proposes an alternative story of Ibn Taymiyya's relationship to the classical debates about ethics. * Caterina Bori, Quaderni di Studi Arabi *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements ; Introduction ; 1 Ethical value between deontology and consequentialism ; 2 Ethical knowledge between human self-guidance and the revealed Law ; 3 Ibn Taymiyya's ethics and its Ash'arite antecedents ; 4 The aims of the Law and the morality of God ; 5 Broader perspectives on Ibn Taymiyya's ethical rationalism ; 6 Return to the present ; Notes ; Bibliography ; Index

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Book Synopsis''The consciousness of knowing little, need not beget a distrust of that which he does not know.''In Natural Theology William Paley set out to prove the existence of God from the evidence of the beauty and order of the natural world. Famously beginning by comparing the world to a watch, whose design is self-evident, he goes on to provide examples from biology, anatomy, and astronomy in order to demonstrate the intricacy and ingenuity of design that could only come from a wise and benevolent deity. Paley''s legalistic approach and skilful use of metaphor and analogy were hugely successful, and equally controversial. Charles Darwin, whose investigations led to very different conclusions in the Origin of Species, was greatly influenced by the book''s cumulative structure and accessible style.This edition reprints the original text of 1802, and sets the book in the context of the theological, philosophical, and scientific debates of the nineteenth century. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 yeTrade ReviewThis is an astonishing book, made all the more accessible by some excellent modern footnotes * John Habgood, Church TImes *

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Book SynopsisPaul Helm presents a new, expanded edition of his much praised 1988 book Eternal God , which defends the view that God exists in timeless eternity. This is the classical Christian view of God, but it is claimed by many theologians and philosophers of religion to be incoherent. Paul Helm rebuts the charge of incoherence, arguing that divine timelessness is grounded in the idea of God as creator, and that this alone makes possible a proper account of divine omniscience. He develops some of the consequences of divine timelessness, particularly as it affects both divine and human freedom, and considers some of the alleged problems about referring to God. The book thus constitutes a unified treatment of the main concepts of philosophical theology. Helm''s revised edition includes four new chapters that develop and extend his account of God and time, taking account of significant work in the area that has appeared since the publication of the first edition, by such prominent figures as WilliTrade ReviewThe book is written with great clarity and can be read by almost anyone, including those with no specialist training in philosophy. ... The book is an excellent introduction to its subject and should be widely read and used by students of both theology and philosophy. ... a book of this kind will be just as valuable in the next generation as it was in the last one. * Gerald Bray, Churchman *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. The Issue of Divine Eternity ; 2. What is Divine Eternity? ; 3. Indexicals and Spacelessness ; 4. Eternity and Personality ; 5. Eternity, Immutability, and Omniscience ; 6. Timelessness and Foreknowledge ; 7. Omniscience and the Future ; 8. Divine Foreknowledge and Fatalism ; 9. Timelessness and Human Responsibility ; 10. Divine Freedom ; 11. Referring to Eternal God ; 12. And then... ; 13. Eternal Creation ; 14. The Two Standpoints ; 15. Time and Trinity ; Bibliography ; Index

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Book SynopsisWhile the problem of evil remains a perennial challenge to theistic belief, little attention has been paid to the special problem of animal pain and suffering. This absence is especially conspicuous in our Darwinian era when theists are forced to confront the fact that animal pain and suffering has gone on for at least tens of millions of years, through billions of animal generations. Evil of this sort might not be especially problematic if the standard of explanations for evil employed by theists could be applied in this instance as well. But there is the central problem: all or most of the explanations for evil cited by theists seem impotent to explain the reality of animal pain and suffering through evolutionary history. Nature Red in Tooth and Claw addresses the evil of animal pain and suffering directly, scrutinizing explanations that have been offered for such evil.Trade ReviewReview from previous edition Michael Murray has written what I believe to be the only book-length study in English of theodicy and animal suffering in the philosophy of religion. The problem is so obvious and so clearly important that a book like this is long overdue. Philosophers of religion, theologians, and, indeed, anyone interested in the intellectual credibility of classical theism will find this book, stimulating and helpful... Nature Red in Tooth Claw is both careful and comprehensive... littered with interesting arguments... the book is excellent. * Gary Chartier, Religious Studies *This book offers an overview of theistic attempts to reconcile the existence of the suffering of non-human animals with the exsistence of the God of classical theism -- the omnipotent, omniscient, and perfectly good creator of the world. It is clearly written and comprehensive... Over the course of his book, Murray develops a powerful argument. * T. J. Mawson, MIND *Table of Contents1. Problems Of and Explanations for Evil ; 2. Neo-Cartesianism ; 3. Animal Suffering and the Fall ; 4. Nobility, Flourishing, and Immortality: Animal Pain and Animal Well-Being ; 5. Natural Evil, Nomic Regularity, and Animal Suffering ; 6. Chaos, Order, and Evolution ; 7. Combining CD's

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Book SynopsisWhile atheists have now become public figures, there is another and perhaps darker strain of religious rebellion that has remained out of sight--people who hate God. In this revealing book, Bernard Schweizer looks at men and women who do not question God''s existence, but deny that He is merciful, competent, or good. Sifting through a wide range of literary and historical works, Schweizer finds that people hate God for a variety of reasons. Some are motivated by social injustice, human suffering, or natural catastrophes that God does not prevent. Some blame God for their personal tragedies. Schweizer concludes that, despite their blasphemous thoughts, these people tend to be creative and moral individuals, and include such literary lights as Friedrich Nietzsche, Mark Twain, Zora Neale Hurston, and Philip Pullman. Schweizer shows that literature is a fertile ground for God haters. Many authors, who dare not voice their negative attitude to God openly, turn to fiction to give vent to it. Indeed, Schweizer provides many new and startling readings of literary masterpieces, highlighting the undercurrent of hatred for God.Trade ReviewThis book usefully opens a large and fascinating subject. * Don Cuppitt, Theology *Table of ContentsPreface Introduction Part One: A Brief History of Misotheism Part Two: Six Case Studies in Literary Misotheism Absolute Misotheism I Paganism, Radicalism, and Algernon Swinburne's War With God Agonistic Misotheism I Faith, Doubt, and Zora Neale Hurston's Secret War Against God Agonistic Misotheism II Bad Fathers, Historical Crises, and Rebecca West's Fluctuating Attitude Towards God Agonistic Misotheism III Divine Apathy, the Holocaust, and Elie Wiesel Wrestling With God Absolute Misotheism II Perverse Worshippers, Divine Artists, and Peter Shaffer's Plots Against God Absolute Misotheism III Children, Deicide, and Philip Pullman's Liberal Crusade against God Conclusion Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThis book explores the role of aesthetic experience in our perception and understanding of the holy. Richard Viladesau''s goal is to articulate a theology of revelation, examined in relation to three principal dimensions of the aesthetic realm: feeling and imagination; beauty (or taste); and the arts. After briefly considering ways in which theology itself can be imaginative or beautiful, Viladesau concentrates on the theological significance of aesthetic data provided by each of the three major spheres of aesthetic perception and response. Throughout the work, the underlying question is how each of these spheres serves as a source (however ambiguous) of revelation. Although he frames much of his argument in terms of Catholic theology--from the Church Fathers to Karl Rahner, Hans urs von Balthasar, Bernard Lonergan, and David Tracy--Viladesau also makes extensive use of ideas from the Protestant theologian of the arts Gerardus van der Leeuw, and draws insights from such diverse thinkerTrade Reviewwell-produced * British Journal of Aesthetics, Vol.41, No.2 *a valuable anthology on the subject ... This study ... opens up a field that is important to us all. * J.B. Bates, The Expository Times, Sept. 00. *Table of ContentsAbbreviations ; 1. Theology and Aesthetics ; 2. God in Thought and in Imagination: Representing the Unimaginable ; 3. Divine Revelation and Human Perception ; 4. God and the Beautiful: Beautiful as a Way to God ; 5. Art and the Sacred ; 6. The Beautiful and the Good ; Appendix: Original Texts of Poetry Quoted in Translation ; Notes ; Index

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Book SynopsisReinterpreting premodern approaches to God's ineffability and postmodern approaches to the mystery of the human subject, this text argues that interest in mystical theological traditions is best understood in relation to contemporary philosophy's emphasis on the idea of human finitude/mortality.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Abbreviations of Main Texts Cited Introduction: Finitude and the Naming of God 1: The Deaths of God in Hegel: Overcoming Finitude and Religious Representation 2: The Temporal Experience of Consciousness: Hegel's Difference of Consciousness and Heidegger's Ontological Difference 3: The Naming of God in Hegel's Speculative Proposition: The Circle of Language and Annulment of the Singular 4: The Mortal Difference: Death and the Possibility of Existence in Heidegger 5: Transcending Negation: The Causal Nothing and Ecstatic Being in Pseudo-Dionysius's Theology 6: The Naming of God and the Possibility of Impossibility: Marion and Derrida between the Theology and Phenomenology of the Gift Conclusion: The Apophatic Analogy Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe earth is my mother, and on her bosom I shall repose.Attributed to Tecumseh in the early 1800s, this statement is frequently cited to uphold the view, long and widely proclaimed in scholarly and popular literature, that Mother Earth is an ancient and central Native American figure. In this radical and comprehensive rethinking, Sam D. Gill traces the evolution of female earth imagery in North America from the sixteenth century to the present and reveals how the evolution of the current Mother Earth figure was influenced by prevailing European-American imagery of America and the Indians as well as by the rapidly changing Indian identity. Gill also analyzes the influential role of scholars in creating and establishing the imagery that underlay the recent origins of Mother Earth and, upon reflection, he raises serious questions about the nature of scholarship. Mother Earth might be modern, stressing the supposed biological ground of native life and its rich mythic tradition, but it

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Book SynopsisGeoffrey F. Nuttall establishes the primacy of the doctrines of the Holy Spirit in seventeenth-century English Puritanism and demonstrates the continuity of the Reformation tradition from the more conservative views of Luther to the more radical interpretations of the Quakers. Nuttall illuminates prominent spokesmen, including Richard Sibbes, Richard Baxter, John Owen, Walter Cradock, Morgan Llwyd, and George Fox. In a new Introduction, Peter Lake discusses the relevance of Nuttall's book to, and its influence on, major works in seventeenth-century English history written since 1946.

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewShe enlists her readers in a close reading and careful analysis of enduring texts from several major religious and philosophical traditions as a way to gain and understanding of key issues in fundamental metaphysics and moral philosophy. Choice For those looking for an introduction to world philosophy, this is an excellent option...Lobel is to be thanked for providing us with a wonderful book that both instructs and inspires our own philosophical and spiritual journeys. -- Tracy Sayuki Tiemeier National Catholic Reporter Lobel's Quest for God and the Good is about the travel, not the destination; it is about raising the questions, not answering them once and for all. -- Yaniv Feller Journal of Jewish ThoughtTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction 1. "God Saw That It Was Good": The Creation of the World in the Hebrew Bible 2. A Divine Craftsman Shapes All for the Good: Plato's Realm of the Forms 3. Change and the Good: Chinese Perspectives 4. The Harmony of Reason and Revelation: Augustine and Maimonides on Good and Evil 5. You Are the Absolute: Philosophies of India 6. Compassion, Wisdom, Awakening: The Way of Buddhism 7. The Good Is That to Which All Things Aim: Aristotle on God and the Good 8. The Philosopher as Teacher: Al-F?r?b? on Contemplation and Action 9. The Imitation of God: Maimonides on the Active and the Contemplative Life 10. The Dance of Human Expression: al-Ghaz?l? and Maimonides ConclusionNotes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewShe enlists her readers in a close reading and careful analysis of enduring texts from several major religious and philosophical traditions as a way to gain and understanding of key issues in fundamental metaphysics and moral philosophy. Choice For those looking for an introduction to world philosophy, this is an excellent option...Lobel is to be thanked for providing us with a wonderful book that both instructs and inspires our own philosophical and spiritual journeys. -- Tracy Sayuki Tiemeier National Catholic Reporter Lobel's Quest for God and the Good is about the travel, not the destination; it is about raising the questions, not answering them once and for all. -- Yaniv Feller Journal of Jewish ThoughtTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction 1. "God Saw That It Was Good": The Creation of the World in the Hebrew Bible 2. A Divine Craftsman Shapes All for the Good: Plato's Realm of the Forms 3. Change and the Good: Chinese Perspectives 4. The Harmony of Reason and Revelation: Augustine and Maimonides on Good and Evil 5. You Are the Absolute: Philosophies of India 6. Compassion, Wisdom, Awakening: The Way of Buddhism 7. The Good Is That to Which All Things Aim: Aristotle on God and the Good 8. The Philosopher as Teacher: Al-F?r?b? on Contemplation and Action 9. The Imitation of God: Maimonides on the Active and the Contemplative Life 10. The Dance of Human Expression: al-Ghaz?l? and Maimonides ConclusionNotes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTable of Contents1. The Problem with God 2. What in God's Name Am I Doing? 3. The Impossible Dream 4. Even If the Flesh Is Willing 5. Atheism... 6... and Agnosticism 7. Full Faith and No Credit 8. It's All in a Good Cause 9. Detective Fiction 10. An Inkling of ... 11... the Truth Afterword: Not Enough? Acknowledgments Amplifications and Clarifications (AKA "Notes") Index

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Book SynopsisThis work demonstrates the depth and clarity of Herbert McCabe's theology and philosophy of God, his appetite for controversy, both political and theolgical, as well as a traditional catholic concern for prayer, liturgy, Mary and St Dominic.Table of ContentsPart 1 God: creation; freedom; evil; the involvement of God. Part 2 Incarnation: the myth of God incarnate; the Incarnation - an exchange (with professor Maurice Wiles). Part 3 Atonement - a long sermon for Holy Week: Holy Thursday - the mystery of unity; Good Friday - the mystery of the cross; the Easter Vigil - the mystery of new life. Part 4 Sacraments: transubstantiation and the real presence; some thoughts on the eucharistic preface by G. Egner (P.J. Fitzpatrick); transubstantiation - a reply to G. Egner; more thoughts on the eucharistic presence by G. Egner; sacramental language. Part 5 Morals and politics: the class struggle and Christian love; thoughts on hunger strikes. Part 6 Talks and sermons: the Immaculate Conception; prayer; obedience; a sermon for St Thomas; on being Dominican; Ash Wednesday; the genealogy of Christ.

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Book SynopsisThe title of Lash''s book, inspired by a combination of George Herbert and Gerard Manley Hopkins, symbolizes his answer to the problem with which he is concerned, that of religious experience. ''I propose,'' he says, ''to argue, on the one hand, that it is not the case that all experience of God is necessarily religious in form or content and, on the other hand, that not everything which it would be appropriate to characterize as religious experience would thereby necessarily constitute experience of God.''To sustain his argument he begins by building up an account of the relationship between the principal elements of human experience which contrasts quite fundamentally with that proposed and presupposed in William James''s classic, The Varieties of Religious Experience, drawing on writers as different as Schleiermacher and Buber, Rahner and Newman. ''However,'' he goes on, ''this is not a book about James or Newman, Rahner or Schleiermacher. It is the issues, or the aTrade Review"A classical, contemporary example of the theological mind at its clearest is Nicholas Lash’s Easter in Ordinary. This complex, distilled, but deeply affecting study of William James, Newman, von Hügel, and Buber, among others, is the choice product of the believing theologian’s art. Tradition rebottled with an awareness of postmodern needs but not necessarily with the mass-market tastes in mind. Demanding, uncommon, quenching." —Commonweal“Relying on John Henry Newman, Friedrich von Hügel, Martin Buber and, more briefly, Hegel, Kant, Schleiermacher, J. F. Fries, and Karl Rahner, and writing from a Christian perspective—Lash argues that mysticism should not be reduced to ‘feelings’ and that the experience of God is not something other than the general experiences had in ordinary life. While accessible to lay readers, this book would be appreciated by professional philosophers and theologians.” —Library Journal

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Book SynopsisThis collection of essays, which originated in 1987 at a symposium titled ""God and Creation: An Ecumenical Symposium in Comparative Religious Thought,"" is devoted to the doctrine of creation in the three Western monotheistic faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.Trade Review“A gem of a book that no student of Abrahamic faiths in general or of Islam in particular can afford to miss. God and Creation marks a major contribution to comparative religious thought as well as to the doctrine of divine creation in the monotheistic traditions. . . . One fervently hopes that this remarkable book soon becomes available as a paperback so that it can reach the hands of eager students instead of collecting dust on the bookshelves of wearied specialists.” —Muslim World Book Review"God and Creation is an important contribution to comparative religious thought in general and to serious theological reflection on the doctrine of divine creation in Judaism, Christianity and Islam in particular." —Temple University"The doctrine of creation is the issue under consideration in God and Creation, the collection of papers and responses originally delivered at a symposium held at the University of Chicago and the University of Notre Dame in 1987. The symposium aims at, and to a remarkable extent, succeeds in fostering conversation between the three great Western traditions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, on some ways in which the doctrine of creation has functioned in each." —AmericaTable of ContentsPhilosophical elaboration of the scriptural witness, Seymour Feldman et al; Judaism, David Blumenthal et al; Christianity, John Kenney et al; Islam, Azim Nanji et al.

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Book SynopsisSince the original publication of this title, the twelfth-century Calabrian Abbot Joachim of Fiore has been accorded an increasingly central position in the history of medieval thought and culture. In this classic work Marjorie Reeves shows the wide extent of Joachimist influence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries and demonstrates the continuity between medieval and Renaissance thought in the field of prophecy.Reeves pinpoints some of the most original aspects of Joachim''s theology of history and traces his reputation and influence through succeeding centuries. She also explains how his vision of a final age of the spirit in history became a powerful force in shaping expectations of the future in Western Europe. The book traces in detail the development of the three great images in which these expectations came to be focused: New Spiritual Men, Angelic Pope, and Last World Emperor. In addition, Reeves illuminates how the pervading influence of Joachim''s conceptsTrade Review“In a work of encyclopedic proportions, the fruit of thirty years of study and research, Reeves presents a survey of Joachimism from the early thirteenth century down to Renaissance and Reformation times, to the day when intelligent and educated men ceased to take prophecy seriously. . . . One would be hard put to pinpoint any important ‘prophet,’ writer, or interpreter of history within the five centuries studied who has been overlooked or slighted.” —The Catholic Historical Review“Reeve’s book is an impressive demonstration of her mastery of an enormous subject: nothing less than the content, spread, and transformations of Joachim of Flora’s ideas during five centuries. No longer can anyone relegate Joachim’s influence to the realm of esoteric. Reeves shows that he shaped the views not only of heretics and Franciscan Spirituals but also of solid middle-of-the-road friars: Franciscan, Dominican, and Augustinian . . . and even of Jesuits and Protestants. . . . [N]o student of Joachism will in future be able to neglect Reeve’s work: it is now an essential starting point for research about Joachim and his followers.” —Speculum“Reeves must be congratulated on her exploration of a complicated and difficult subject. Her book sheds light on a great many aspects of medieval and early modern history.” —The English Historical Review"In the present study . . . Reeves provides valuable insights and exhaustive research into the increasingly important, but highly controversial, figure of Joachim of Fiore (c. 1135-1202)." —Sixteenth Century Journal

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Book SynopsisApophasis has become a major topic in the humanities, particularly in philosophy, religion, and literature. This monumental two-volume anthology gathers together most of the important historical works on apophaticism and illustrates the diverse trajectories of apophatic discourse in ancient, modern, and postmodern times. William Franke provides a major introductory essay on apophaticism at the beginning of each volume, and shorter introductions to each anthology selection. The second volume, Modern and Contemporary Transformations, contains texts by Hölderlin, Schelling, Kierkegaard, Dickinson, Rilke, Kafka, Rosenzweig, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Weil, Schoenberg, Adorno, Beckett, Celan, Levinas, Derrida, Marion, and more.Trade Review“One of the most important and original contributions to the discussion of apophasis in recent years. . . . Franke’s historical and disciplinary range, in light of his well-written and compelling essays, provides an illuminating insight into the pervasiveness of apophatic discourse. . . . Franke’s anthology is a resource which should not be ignored. Few others, maybe no others, provide the same clarity, coherence, and scope.” —Christianity and Literature“The genius of Franke’s two-volume critical anthology on apophatic discourses is the work’s breadth and depth of engagement with the concept in variously distinct and even conflicting contexts. . . . Franke manages his sweeping and inclusive exploration of apophatic discourses by identifying a thematic lens for selecting his sources as part of a larger, conceptually-rooted genre of discourse. . . . The greatest strength of Franke’s two-volume collection resides in the sheer fact that nothing like it exists.” —Essays in Philosophy“The second volume, stretching from Holderlin to Jean-Luc Marion, provides readings from sources as diverse as Schelling, Dickinson, Kafka, Wittgenstein, John Cage, and Maurice Blanchot. . . . Franke observes that these modern and contemporary apophatic currents, as ra dical as they truly are, are nevertheless thoroughly indebted to the 'ancient theological matrices' out of which they indirectly (or not so indirectly) spring. . . . I recommend these two volumes as essential reading for philosophers, theologians, literary scholars, intellectual historians, critical theorists—in short, anyone interested in an illuminating and vital perspective on just about any facet of Western arts and letters." —Religion and Literature

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Book SynopsisApophasis has become a major topic in the humanities, particularly in philosophy, religion, and literature. This two-volume anthology gathers together most of the important historical works on apophaticism and illustrates the diverse trajectories of apophatic discourse in ancient, modern, and postmodern times.Trade Review“Any writer worth his salt knows that what cannot be spoken is ultimately the thing worth speaking about; yet most often this humbling awareness is unsaid or covered up. There are some who have made it their business, however, to court failure and acknowledge defeat, to explore the impasse of words before silence. William Franke has created an anthology of such explorations, undertaken in poetry and prose, that stretches from Plato to the present. Whether the subject of discourse is All or Nothing does not matter: the struggle of speech to name the unnameable is the same. This ambitious two-volume undertaking demonstrates a preoccupation as old as Western civilization itself: the limits of language and the virtue of being at a loss for words. How long we have been raiding the Inarticulate!” —Peter S. Hawkins, Boston University“Developments in critical theory during the past two decades have led to renewed interest in negative theology. Books like Languages of the Unsayable (1989), Negation and Theology (1992), Derrida and Negative Theology (1992), and The Otherness of God (1998) have signaled the resurgence of this ancient tradition. William Franke’s distinctive contribution is to provide the background and texts from which these recent developments have emerged.” —Mark Taylor, Williams College"These two volumes successfully realize a massive project: to propose and delineate a new field of discourse that provides a fresh approach to Western thought as a whole. In short, William Franke demonstrates the centrality of apophaticism, 'what cannot be said,' to the Western tradition, from Plato (and before) to Derrida (and beyond). . . . The first volume covers the first 'cycles' of apophasis, as the Western tradition evolves, stretching from the commentary tradition of Plato's Parmenides to Eckhart and his progenitors. . . . Franke's work is nothing short of brilliant." —Religion and Literature“. . . one of the most important and original contributions to the discussion of apophasis in recent years. . . . Franke’s historical and disciplinary range, in light of his well-written and compelling essays, provides an illuminating insight into the pervasiveness of apophatic discourse. . . . Franke’s anthology is a resource which should not be ignored. Few others, maybe no others, provide the same clarity, coherence, and scope.” —Christianity and Literature“The genius of Franke’s two-volume critical anthology on apophatic discourses is the work’s breadth and depth of engagement with the concept in variously distinct and even conflicting contexts. . . . Franke manages his sweeping and inclusive exploration of apophatic discourses by identifying a thematic lens for selecting his sources as part of a larger, conceptually-rooted genre of discourse. . . . the greatest strength of Franke’s two-volume collection resides in the sheer fact that nothing like it exists.” —Essays in Philosophy

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Book SynopsisThe central task of Being With God is an analysis of the relation between apophaticism, trinitarian theology, and divine-human communion through a critical comparison of the trinitarian theologies of the Eastern Orthodox theologians Vladimir Lossky (190358) and John Zizioulas (1931 ), arguably two of the most influential Orthodox theologians of the past century. These two theologians identify as the heart and center of all theological discourse the realism of divine-human communion, which is often understood in terms of the familiar Orthodox concept of theosis, or divinization. The Incarnation, according to Lossky and Zizioulas, is the event of a real divine-human communion that is made accessible to all; God has become human so that all may participate fully in the divine life.Aristotle Papanikolaou shows how an ontology of divine-human communion is at the center of both Lossky''s and Zizioulas''s theological projects. He also shows how, for both theologTrade Review“The book compares the Trinitarian theologies of Vladimir Lossky and John Zizioulas with a view to illustrating how each author conceives of the communion between God and humanity. Both authors affirm the reality of the divine-human communion, yet there are profound differences in the way Lossky and Zizioulas envisage and explain such communion.” —Logos: A Journal of Eastern Christian Studies“In this book, Aristotle Papanikolaou compares the Trinitarian theologies of Vladimir Lossky and John Zizioulas, two of the foremost Orthodox minds of the twentieth century. He argues that while both men take the reality of divine-human communion as the starting point for their reflection about God, they wind up constructing dissimilar, even mutually incompatible, theologies.” —Anglican Theological Review“The result is a helpful comparative analysis that shows how common affirmations within the theological task can lead to very different outcomes: Lossky with his prominent apophaticism and Zizioulas with his Eucharistic ecclesiology. . . . Being with God shows that substantial diversity exists within contemporary Orthodox theology . . . Papanikolaou shows himself to be a careful reader of Lossky and Zizioulas.” —International Journal of Systematic Theology“This is an analysis of the relation between apophaticism, Trinitarian theology, and divine-human communion through a critical comparison of the Trinitarian theologies of Vladimir Lossky and John Zizioulas, arguably two of the most influential Orthodox theologians of the past century. Papanikolaou shows how an ontology of divine-human communion is at the center of both Lossky's and Zizioula's theological projects and how they use this core belief as a self-identifying marker against 'Western' theologies.” —Theology Digest“How is divine-human encounter possible given that the triune God transcends human logic, thought, and speech-so that man can speak of him only in apophatic (negative) terms? How is this possible unless the triune God is immanent within creation and man can speak of him in cataphatic (positive) terms? . . . Papanikolaou's work is important because it critically compares two ontological answers to these questions by Vladimir Lossky (1903-1958) and John Zizioulas (1931-), two of the most influential Eastern Orthodox theologians of the twentieth century. As such, it provides a window into significant developments and debates in contemporary Orthodox thought.” —Westminster Theological Journal “This book is a tour de force of conversational theology. The author offers a beautiful exercise in a 'hermeneutics of charity,' because, for him, critical engagement with the two theologians under discussion does not amount to deconstruction but to a fruitful and truthful encounter, which takes the 'struggle' of conversation seriously.” —The Journal of Religion“This carefully researched, cogently argued book undertakes a comparative exploration of two twentieth century orthodox theologians: Vladimir Lossky and John Zizioulas. While their emphases and conclusions differ, both authors endeavor to counteract the 'western' rationalism sneaking into contemporary orthodoxy by appealing to the doctrine of theosis. . . . By far the most beautifully written sections of Being with God are those concerned with Zizioulas's Eucharistic theology which, for Papanikolaou, counters with Losskian dangers of individualism, impersonalism, and substantialism.” —Modern Theology

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Book SynopsisA collection of meditative short stories, inspired by the Bible and the cycle of the Christian year. There are stories on themes such as Creation and the Fall, the search for God in the wilderness, Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and Ascension.

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Book SynopsisThe need to position Christianity in relation to other religions has sparked renewed interest in the theme of creation. This book represents an introduction to a neglected aspect of Christian doctrine, and an example of theology, where Christianity is brought into dialogue with contemporary issues.

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Book SynopsisA world-renowned scholar explores and explains the two views of God in the Bible the violent God of vengeance and retribution, and the non-violent God who became incarnate in Jesus.Trade ReviewPraise for the author’s The Power of Parable: Crossan’s exceptional clarity and methodical presentation combine to make this one of the best, most enthralling Bible-study courses many readers will ever take. * Booklist *We tend to ignore, explain away or filter out the violence attributed to God in the Bible. The phrase "Skeletons in the cupboard" comes to mind; critics of Christianity notice them and dig them out even if we don’t. "Ah," we say, "but that’s the Old Testament; the New is different." Yet violence is attributed to God in the New Testament as well. The provocative sub-title of John Dominic Corssan’s new book spells out the challenge: Jesus and the Violence of Scripture: How to Read the Bible and Still be a Christian. The author begins by telling us a bit about his own personal journey. An Irish Catholic, Crossan had joined a monastery by the age of 16 and began training for his priesthood soon afterwards. But the study of Thomas Aquinas, he says, taught him not only what to think, but also how to think. In 1968, by then in the States, he went public in his opposition to the papal encyclical Humanae Vitae on birth control. A rebuke from the cardinal archbishop of Chicago followed and, six months later, Cardinal Cody was still archbishop, "but Father Dominic (ie Crossan) was both an ex-monk and an ex-priest (p 5). Still a Christian, as his repeated, "we Christians" in this book shows, he became a leading authority on the historical background of Jesus and of Paul. And should you wonder whether this is too radical for a church house group, this book, the author tells us, has emerged from his talks in churches, not his lectures in the academy. The violence in the Bible is everywhere: not only a violent God, but a violent Jesus and a violent Paul (Crossan includes rhetorical violence – e.g. abusing opponents – on the charge sheet). And all this violence exists in the bible alongside a non-violent God, a non-violent Jesus and a non-violent Paul. How come? Civilisation and human culture, he argues, could not cope with the non-violence; it was simply too radical. The book has four sections: Part 1: Challenge introduces the argument; Parts II and III on Civilisation and Covenant look at the Old Testament evidence. Crossan is especially severe on Deuteronomy and related writings, which, in his view, turn the natural consequences of human wrongdoing into divine punishments. Part IV, entitled "Community," looks at the Gospels, Paul and Revelation – in which the non-violent first coming of Jesus becomes the violent second coming. But the Gospels are a problem too. The Jesus who taught "Love your enemies" (Matthew 5.44) is the Jesus who heaped vitriol on the scribes and Pharisees: "You snakes, you brood of vipers! How can you escape being sentenced to hell?" (p. 178). Years ago in the Epworth Review, former Methodist principal of Handsworth College Leslie Mitton pointed out the problem. Similarly, the Paul who wrote "In Christ there is … neither sale nor free, male nor female" (Galatians 3.28) is the Paul who wrote (or had attributed to him) "Slaves obey your masters," "Wives obey your husbands". Was this teaching a necessary compromise in the circumstances of the first century – or was it a sell-out? So in Crossan’s view the reaction against a radical God, a radical Jesus, a radical Paul, began very early – and it pervades our Bibles. He is scholarly, his arguments are brilliantly lucid and hi is passionately Christian. But is he right? Whether we’re talking about God, Jesus or Paul, there are problematic details – which our lectionary sometimes tip-toes around (A lectionary reading in two or three bits may be a sign that something unsavoury has been missed out). In both Testaments, the radical and the more conventional often co-exist in uneasy tension. But I wonder if Crossan’s solution in the end is both too neat and not deep enough. For example, on Genesis 4 he writes: "The mark of Cain is on human civilisation, not on human nature. Escalatory violence is our nemesis, not our nature; our avoidable decision, not our unavoidable destiny…" (p. 66). Jesus (and Paul) go deeper: "If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts…" (Luke 11.13). "The good which I want to do I fail to do…" (Romans 7.19). The current international scene demonstrates this only too well. Crossan’s central thesis appears simple: Jesus is the Bible’s centre, so evaluate the Bible in the light of Christ and evaluate all that it says about Christ in the light of the historical Jesus (p. 185). Compare our own Deed of Union: "…the revelation contained in Scripture… the supreme rule of faith and practice". Revelation, however, is a broader and deeper concept than the historical Jesus, of whom Christians have always tended to have different pictures and interpretations. For years (broadly speaking), the answers of both "liberal" and "evangelical" – if we must still use these unhelpful labels – to the thorny question of divine violence in the Bible have been inadequate. Liberals excise too much of Scripture; evangelicals tend to do the opposite. Crossan’s splendidly lucid book ought to make us think – and hopefully, enter more deeply into the mystery of "am essentially non-coercive God". -- The Rev Dr Neil Richardson * Methodist Recorder *Those who do not read the Bible carefully – or who do not read it at all sometimes speak of a separation between the Old Testament God who is thunderous and cruel, and the New Testament God who is kind and gentle. It does not take long for such a reading to unravel, whether you are looking at the everlasting mercy of God in Psalm 103, removing our guilt with a separation as wide as East from West, to the frequent occasions when Jesus is quoted in the Gospels as predicting eternal punishment in an afterlife for the wicked. Indeed, the New Testament, which depicts Jesus the Prince of Peace riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, also allows a reprise in Revelation depicting Christ riding a celestial warhorse to take revenge on the Romans. Jesus and the Violence of Scripture is an attempt to explain the shocking contrast between these two positions. John Dominic Crossan’s subtitle – How to read the Bible and still be a Christian – begs a few questions. It implies that to be a Christian, you ought to agree with Crossan that there is no place in the Christian scheme of things for divine vengeance, or for the punishment of wickedness and vice. The compilers of the Book of Common Prayer, not to mention St Augustine, St Thomas Aquinas, or Dante Alighieri – to seize a few obvious examples – would not, by the Crossan criterion, be Christians. Those of us, however, who are disturbed by the violence of the biblical God, and of much notionally orthodox thought, will open Crossan’s book eagerly in the hope of some solution to our problems. Is it possible to excise from our picture of the biblical God the many instances where he is violent and encourages violence in others? Can we simply discard the God and Romans 1:18, for example, whose wrath "is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness of wickedness"? Or the God represented in Matthew 25:31ff, who will divide the sheep from the goats and send the goats to the "eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels", not to mention the bloodbath of Revelation 16:19, where "God remembered great Babylon and gave her the wine-cup of the fury of his wrath"? Could we manage to drop these bits out of the Bible altogether, and just keep the material about loving our neighbours and remembering the plight of the poor? And were we to do this, would we be what Crossan defines as "still… a Christian"? Crossan’s answer is yes. That is because his Bible is a supermarket where you have to read the labels of the wares on the shelves to avoid being hoodwinked into thinking you are getting the authentic stuff. Paul, in this reading, becomes an authentic messenger of the Kingdom-movement started by Jesus. "No betrayal of Jesus or Judaism was involved with Paul, who took Jesus’s vision out of the villages of the Jewish homeland and accurately rephrased it for the great Roman cities of the Jewish Diaspora." Some of Crossan’s most persuasive passages are those that point up what the original Paul thought about slavery, and what his followers or imitators wanted us to think he thought. There are seven authentic Pauline epistles – Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians and Philemon. In Philemon, Paul addressed the owner of a salve called Onesimus. It is clear that Paul who proclaimed that in Christ there is neither bond nor free wanted Philemon to regard his former slave as a slave no more, but "a beloved brother" (verse 18). What explanation, then, do we have for those later injunctions, such as, "Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling" (Ephesians 6:5)? For Crossan, the explanation is very simple. Paul did not write Ephesians. Crossan’s St Paul was in fact pro-women and anti-slavery – apart from an unfortunate outburst about women covering their heads while speaking. But, as Crossan points out this passage takes for granted that women did indeed speak in church to pray and prophesy (1 Corinthians 11:5). These points are well made, but for me they are a little too simply made. Crossan has set himself a very big task – namely to carve all the "authentic" bits out of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, and to discard the "inauthentic". His argument is premised on a conviction that the true God is always in favour of what Crossan sees as distributive justice. By contrast it is the ineluctable tendency of later editors, imitators and redactors to introduce retributive justice. Hence, in the end, Jesus the peace-and-joy man on the donkey becomes the mass-slayer on a horse in Revelation. The tendency can be seen, going right back to the arrival of the Deuteronomist as one of the redactors or authors of Genesis in the mid-500s BC. God, in Robert Frost’s poem "A Masque of Reason", says to Job, "You realize now the part you played / To stultify the Deuteronomist / And change the tenor of religious thought". For Crossan as for Frost, the Deuteronomist’s desire to reduce religion to a matter of law-observance, and to introduce the notion of sanction and punishment for the infringement of religious laws, is the enemy of all that the liberating Yahweh brought to the early dawning of Hebrew religious understanding. Crossan’s version of Scripture is certainly attractive, but only up to a point do I find it convincing. The Bible, and life, are more complicated than Crossan would like us to think. If you have a concept of justice and righteousness at all, then a part of that concept must include comeuppance for the wrongdoer. This is not because the Bible – or any other ethical code – is dreamed up by punishment freaks. It is because if there is no sanction, then evil is in effect allowed. If you maintain a belief in transcendent ethics, then heaven cries out against the infringement of justice, as it does through all the great prophets of Israel. Crossan’s reading of Romans is in this respect especially problematic. One of the core ideas of the epistle is that of baptism into death. The followers of Jesus had died to the basic values of Rome’s empire and been reborn to those of God’s sanction – retributive, if you will – and not just "distributive". The atoning death of Christ was necessary for grace to flow. This idea runs through everything Paul wrote and was surely one of the critical ingredients in Christianity from its inception. In an opening chapter, Crossan describes his disgust at a film version of C. S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. He contrasts Aslan’s words to Peter, the eldest of the children involved in the Battle against the White Witch of Narnia, with the words of Christ in Gethsemane. "Never forget to wipe your sword," says Aslan, who clearly approves of the children having taken part in what Crossan calls "the divine violence of apocalyptic cleansing". Contrast this with the Jesus of Matthew’s Gospel telling the disciples at the time of his arrest, "all who take the sword will perish by the sword" (Matthew 26:52). Tolstoy, a Jewish expert on Jesus such as Geza Vermes, and many – perhaps most – Church of England bishops today, would certainly accept Crossan’s belief in a pacifist Jesus who preferred to die a martyr’s death at the hands of Pilate rather than make himself the leader of violent revolution. It would be blindness to deny that there is this strain in the New Testament, and perhaps at its core. Perhaps. And yet there are many moment’s as I read Crossan’s book when it struck me that a more accurate subtitle would be "How to read the Bible and still be good American liberal". I tried to imagine Crossan’s project in the hands of Dante Alighieri. The Dantean perception that hell itself it the creation of divine love allowed of a paradoxical but necessary truth. Crossan’s Jesus, who is simply a martyr for distributive justice, cannot save me from my sins. The theme of soteriology does not enter into Crossan’s book, but it is surely one of the key elements of the seven authentic epistles of Paul. Indeed, it forms the very essence of what Crossan rightly calls "his last will and testament, a magnificent summary of… what he was about, and how his Christian Judaism envisaged the destiny of the world". But the only major theme of Romans that Crossan picks up on is dying in order to live. You might think that he would be knocked off his perch by a reading of Romans 13, in which Paul enjoined the Romans to be subject to the governing authorities. But, says Crossan, this section has been "quotes out of context across two thousand years". Paul’s point was not to make the early Christians into worshippers of the state, but – as Romans 12:14 – to "bless those who persecute you". Paul is not afraid that Christians will be killed, but that they will kill. His concern is not that Rome will use violence against Christians, but that Christians will use counter-violence against Rome. "Non-violent reaction to evil from Jesus through Paul is the most basic denial of Rome’s core value of peace through violent victory." That is a point very well made. It does, however, depend on a certain confidence about what the historical Jesus actually taught. The historical Jesus is a notoriously elusive figure. John Dominic Crossan has been one of the most distinguished New Testament scholars of the past few decades. He and Robert Funk founded the Jesus Seminar in the United States, in which 150 or so scholars were quizzed about their confidence in the authenticity of the sayings attributed to Jesus. They voted with coloured beads. A red bead meant you were certain Jesus has said it. Pink meant it was like an authentic Jesus-saying, even if not actually attributable. Grey beads meant that you thought the saying inauthentic but the sort of thing which might have been said. Black meant a definite negative – not authentic at all, and out of character. All this presupposes the existence of some historical evidence. Does it exist? Crossan, as well as being an extremely learned New Testament scholar, is also a good-humoured one. He therefore fully acknowledges the warnings expressed over a hundred years ago by Albert Schweitzer, that the many authors in the nineteenth century who thought they were recovering the historical Jesus were looking down the well of history and catching their own reflections. Jesus-scholars, as Crossan has said, are often writing autobiography and calling it biography. How much, thought, can the historian actually know about Jesus? Of his followers, from Paul onwards, we can note their readiness to undergo persecution for their belief in a Jesus crucified at the command of Pontius Pilate, who had, as they professed, risen from the dead, and was their redeemer. Their witness, passed on to the next generation, led to the writing of the Gospels. How much biographical material do these documents give us? Almost none, thought we can surely reasonably infer that Jesus preached the Kingdom of God, which was already realizable for those who accepted his revolutionary reversal of hierarchies, his belief that the poor, the outcasts and the marginalized were closer to God than the rich or the rulers of this world. Paul claims, as do the Gospels, that the Eucharist was left behind by Jesus as a token of his presence among believers, though whether this was a Passover meal, and indeed whether Jesus died at Passover, remains historically highly problematic. Crossan’s Jesus, in this as in previous books, is identifiable as being a noble example of the pacifist resistance to the Roman occupation of Israel. As Crossan reminds us, as well as the famous armed revolts against Rome between the reigns of Augustus and Hadrian, there was also a continued stream of unarmed protest and resistance. Crowds of tens of thousands, including women and children (which emphasized their calculatedly non-violent intentions) confronted the Syrian Governor Petronius when he marched two legions south from Syria with the aim of erecting a statue of the insane Caligula in the Temple at Jerusalem. It was very much the ethos of such resistance movements that their leaders or prophets thought it preferable to die as martyrs than to kill as terrorists. Crossan identifies John the Baptist as one of the most remarkable of such figures. When Herod Antipas moved the capital of Galilee from Sepphoris to the new foundation of Tiberius, he was doing so as an act of sycophancy to Tiberius. He was involved in a commercialization of the Galilean lake monopolizing the fish trade and hugely increasing the taxes. That was to impress the Romans, but to appease his Jewish subjects he divorced his Arab wife and married his Hasmonean sister-in-law Herodias, who has herself to divorce her husband who happened to be Antipas’s brother. John the Baptist denounced this, and famously paid for it with his head. Crossan believes that you can discern a departure in his follower Jesus from the Baptist’s line. Jesus, Crossan holds, did not merely disapprove of marrying your divorced sister-in-law. He disapproved of divorce per se. You get this, if you follow Crossan’s methodology, by comparing John’s denunciation – "It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife" (Mark 6:18) – with a generalized condemnation of divorce and remarriage voiced by Jesus himself: "Whoever divorces his wife and married another commits adultery against her" (Mark 10:11). Behind this book lies a very simple concept. You would say that it was an obvious concept were it not for the fact that so many critics, and students of literature, biblical and non-biblical, ignore it: namely that it is impossible to understand texts without discovering something about the world from which they came. Crossan calls this the Matrix. "Matrix is the background you cannot skip, the context you cannot avoid." Gandhi would not be comprehensible unless you knew about the British imperialism. American racial discrimination since the time of the slave trade is the matrix in which the career of Martin Luther King makes sense. Likewise the figures in the Bible, including, and especially, God. Crossan’s descriptions of whence and how the biblical writers derived their ideas of God – from the template of the religio-political framework of their times – is masterly. He takes us all the way from the Sumerian myths which helped to shape the narratives of the first chapters of Genesis, to the Virgilian theology of Roman Emperor-worship. There is an especially powerful comparison between the anti-Roman legends in the Jewish Sybilline Oracles, and the final book of the Bible. The Sybilline Oracles believed the legend that Nero, far from dying, was a Once and Future Kind. Nero was a villain in the West but a hero in the East, where he made an honourable peace with the Parthians in AD 63. Hence the anti-Roman legend that Nero was a Oance and Future King who would one day return at the head of Parthian armies to destroy the Roman Empire. In the Jewish Sybilline Oracles, Nero had become an apocalyptic figure: "He will destroy every land and conquer all . . . He will destroy many men and great rulers and he will set fire to all men as no one ever did". Now turn to the Book of Revelation, and we find that the Nero-like figure who is coming to destroy and kill on a cosmic scale is none other than Christ. "In a terrible . . . irony", Crossan writes, "Revelation replaced returning Nero and his Parthian martial forces with returning Christ and his angelic hosts. This is Revelation’s worst libel against God and worst slander against Jesus." Of course, the reasonable, genial, modernside to any reader’s nature will believe this. This book will rejoice the hearts of liberal Christians everywhere, and it will quicken in the minds of more orthodox readers the fear that they, and the authors of the more bloodcurdling passages of Scripture, have been projecting onto the universe their own neuroses – which is a version of the sin of idolatry. Yet much of the Bible, if you read it in this way, has to be discarded. John Dominic Crossan might rightly retort, yes, of course: that is why he wrote his book – to recover a Pauline liberty, and free his readers from enslavement to nomos. But by the end of the journey I felt like one who had arrived at a foreign airport with only his hand luggage, and whose weightier suitcases had unfortunately dropped out of the hold. The God of Paul requires justice, not a mere "pacifist" caving in to the violence of evil. Christ paid the price because, on an orthodox understanding, "there was none other good enough". Likewise, John’s God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son to the end that all that believes in him should not perish. To remove the concept of redemption from the New testament might satisfy its more squeamish readers, but I am not convinced that it would make them into Christians. * The Times Literary Supplement *A stimulating, provocative book. -- Cavan Wood * The Reader, summer 2016 *This book provides a clear analysis of biblical violence and non-violence at least as associated with justice. If this is ultimately a theological problem, as Crossan so competently and convincingly demonstrates, then we must struggle with the Bible as a whole seriously. -- Donn F. Morgan, Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkeley, CA. * Theology Journal Issue 119.4 *

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