Philosophy of religion Books
University of Toronto Press The Dervishes of the North
Book SynopsisThe Dervishes of the North traces the legacy of the thirteenth-century Muslim mystic and poet, Jalal al-Din Rumi, and examines contemporary Sufism in Canada.Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Sufi Communities in Canada 2. Sama‘, Shab-i ‘arus, and Rituals of Remembrance 3. The Politics of Consumption: The Aesthetic and Cultural Expressions of Rumi 4. Gender Dynamics in Sufi Rituals, Praxis, and Authority Epilogue Bibliography
£52.70
University of Toronto Press The Dervishes of the North
Book SynopsisThe Dervishes of the North traces the legacy of the thirteenth-century Muslim mystic and poet, Jalal al-Din Rumi, and examines contemporary Sufism in Canada.Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Sufi Communities in Canada 2. Sama‘, Shab-i ‘arus, and Rituals of Remembrance 3. The Politics of Consumption: The Aesthetic and Cultural Expressions of Rumi 4. Gender Dynamics in Sufi Rituals, Praxis, and Authority Epilogue Bibliography
£23.39
University of Toronto Press Rescuing Humanity
Book SynopsisRescuing Humanity ?examines the possible roots of most planetary crises and reveals how we might instead create a livable and sustainable future.Table of ContentsPreface Introduction Suspended in Language and Culture Attempts at Escaping Our Suspension in Language and Culture Foundationalism and the Architecture of Non-Life The Technical Division of Labour and the Architecture of Non-Life Technique and the Architecture of Non-Life Technique, the State, and the Law Growing Up and Living with Technique 1. Our Physical Embodiment within the Relativity of Life and the World Can We Escape Our Embodiment? The Great Cultural Divide in the Relativity of Human Life The Relativity of Our Lives before Screen-Based Devices The General Relativity of Human Life and the World before Screen-based Devices 2. Our Social and Cultural Embodiment in the Relativity of Human Life in the World A Hidden Discontinuity The Artificiality of a Culture Screens as Magic Portals Growing Up with Symbolization and Desymbolization Two Streams of Experiences Language Acquisition in Anti-Societies with Three Frames of Reference 3. Living with a Dual Relativity beyond Cultural Embodiment A General Interpretation of Our Dual Relativity Living and Constructed Entities The Emergence of Cultural Mediation in a General Relativity From Cultural to Technical Mediation The Economy, Art, and the Order of Non-Sense Making Sense of Non-Sense 4. Mathematics as the Non-Language of Science and Technique Mathematical Foundations and Truths The Emergence of a Secular Religious Daily-Life World Science and Mathematics Disciplines, Games, and the General Relativity of Human Life Mathematics as a Discipline Mathematics, Languages, and Games Mathematics and Time Mathematics and Daily Life Mathematics and Education Is Mathematics the Secular Religion of Technique? 5. Human Knowing and Discipline-Based Science Is Our Science Unlike All Others? Disciplines and Daily-Life Knowing The Known and the Unknown Culture and Discipline-Based Science Science, Reality, and Our Life-Milieu Physics as a Mathematical Game? Our Metaphors for Space, Time, Matter, and Numbers Science, Religion, and Christianity 6. Human Doing, Technique, and the Living of Our Lives Naming What We Have Lost Recognizing the Symptoms of What We Have Lost Absolute and Relative Efficiency Economics as Technique Our Daily Lives and the Professions of Technique Technique and Non-Life Technique as Response to Relativism, Nihilism, and Anomie Epilogue: Possessed by Secular Myths Endangered by Secular Religious Attitudes Is Humanity Truly against Enslavement? Notes Index
£55.25
University of Toronto Press Rescuing Humanity
Book SynopsisIn Rescuing Humanity, Willem H. Vanderburg reminds us that we have relied on discipline-based approaches for human knowing, doing, and organizing for less than a century. During this brief period, these approaches have become responsible for both our spectacular successes and most of our social and environmental crises. At their roots is a cultural mutation that includes secular religious attitudes that veil the limits of these approaches, leading to their overvaluation. Because their use, especially in science and technology, is primarily built up with mathematics, living entities and systems can be dealt with only as if their architecture or design is based on the principle of non-contradiction, which is true only for non-living entities. This distortion explains our many crises. Vanderburg begins to explore the limits of discipline-based approaches, which guides the way toward developing complementary ones capable of transcending these limits. It is no different froTable of ContentsPreface Introduction Suspended in Language and Culture Attempts at Escaping Our Suspension in Language and Culture Foundationalism and the Architecture of Non-Life The Technical Division of Labour and the Architecture of Non-Life Technique and the Architecture of Non-Life Technique, the State, and the Law Growing Up and Living with Technique 1. Our Physical Embodiment within the Relativity of Life and the World Can We Escape Our Embodiment? The Great Cultural Divide in the Relativity of Human Life The Relativity of Our Lives before Screen-Based Devices The General Relativity of Human Life and the World before Screen-based Devices 2. Our Social and Cultural Embodiment in the Relativity of Human Life in the World A Hidden Discontinuity The Artificiality of a Culture Screens as Magic Portals Growing Up with Symbolization and Desymbolization Two Streams of Experiences Language Acquisition in Anti-Societies with Three Frames of Reference 3. Living with a Dual Relativity beyond Cultural Embodiment A General Interpretation of Our Dual Relativity Living and Constructed Entities The Emergence of Cultural Mediation in a General Relativity From Cultural to Technical Mediation The Economy, Art, and the Order of Non-Sense Making Sense of Non-Sense 4. Mathematics as the Non-Language of Science and Technique Mathematical Foundations and Truths The Emergence of a Secular Religious Daily-Life World Science and Mathematics Disciplines, Games, and the General Relativity of Human Life Mathematics as a Discipline Mathematics, Languages, and Games Mathematics and Time Mathematics and Daily Life Mathematics and Education Is Mathematics the Secular Religion of Technique? 5. Human Knowing and Discipline-Based Science Is Our Science Unlike All Others? Disciplines and Daily-Life Knowing The Known and the Unknown Culture and Discipline-Based Science Science, Reality, and Our Life-Milieu Physics as a Mathematical Game? Our Metaphors for Space, Time, Matter, and Numbers Science, Religion, and Christianity 6. Human Doing, Technique, and the Living of Our Lives Naming What We Have Lost Recognizing the Symptoms of What We Have Lost Absolute and Relative Efficiency Economics as Technique Our Daily Lives and the Professions of Technique Technique and Non-Life Technique as Response to Relativism, Nihilism, and Anomie Epilogue: Possessed by Secular Myths Endangered by Secular Religious Attitudes Is Humanity Truly against Enslavement? Notes Index
£28.80
University of Toronto Press Erasmus Annotations on the New Testament
Book SynopsisWithout the notes, Erasmus said, the texts of the Scripture were 'naked and defenceless,' open to criticism by uncomprehending readers and corruption by careless printers. The Annotations represent not only Erasmus' defence of the New Testament against such abuss, but also a reflection of his own philosophy, objectives, and working methods.In establishing the text and defending it against his opponents, Erasmus drew on manuscript sources, classical literature, patristic writings, scholastic exegesis, and the work of his immediate forerunners, Valla and Lefevre. He did not hesitate to point out the errors of illustrious writers like Jerome and established medieval authorities like Peter Lombard. In general he was appreciative of the early church Fathers and contemptuous of medieval commentators.As well as discussing the contents and aims of the Annotations, Erika Rummel investigates Erasmus' development from philologist to theologian and traces the prepub
£21.59
University of Toronto Press Eros and Psyche
Book SynopsisThis study makes a substantial contribution to our understanding of the development of ancient Platonism and of the influence of Greek philosophy on Christian thought. The author examines a number of themes such as Eros, Virtue, and Knowledge in the writings of Plato himself, and shows that, in our interpretation of them, we must recognize certain latent contradictions; his successors, however, attempted, not always successfully, to form a synthesis of Platonic theory based on the genuinely Platonic motif of the attaining of likeness to God.The author skilfully demonstrates that Plato’s thought contained within itself unresolved, but philosophically fruitful divergences of opinion on the highest topics; the Good, the nature of love, the aim of the life of virtue. The author suggests that the unity of Plato’s thought consists only in certain general beliefs, such as that there are supra-sensible realities and that some aspect of the human soul is immortal. He pro
£25.19
University of Toronto Press Rhetoric and Theology
Book SynopsisDeparting from the traditional focus on Erasmus as philologist and moralist, Rhetoric and Theology shows how Erasmus attempted to interpret Scripture by way of a rhetorical theology that focuses on the figurative, metaphorical quality of language, with a view to moral and theological reform. Manfred Hoffmann concentrates on the theological scources of Erasmus' hermeneutic from 1518 to 1535, especially the Ratio verae theologiae, the Ecclesiastes, and the exegesis of Old and New Testament texts. He shows that Erasmus' hermeneutic is based on the concept of language as mediation. Words do not have the power to represent the truth unambiguously, but they appeal to our understanding in ways that draw us to the truth through the process of interpretation. For Erasmus it is through allegory that the divine Word carries out its mediation between letter and spirit.Erasmus used the tools of rhetoric to read and understand Scripture, and thereby constructed a theological framework that h
£26.99
University of Toronto Press The God Within
Book SynopsisFor nineteenth-century thinkers, the central problem of religious consciousness in the modern West was the tension between prevailing concepts of individual autonomy and the traditional Judaeo-Christian claim for divine revelation. The God Within brings together ten of Professor Emil Fackenheim's essays on the German Idealists who struggled to resolve this tension. This philosophic preoccupation found its most searching and comprehensive expression, when the traditional notion of 'God as Transcendent' was reconceptualized as 'the God within.' The internalization of God's `otherness' reached its climax with Hegel, the subject of Fackenheim's earlier work, The Religious Dimension in Hegel's Thought. This long-awaited companion to that volume examines the earlier stages of the process, beginning with its initiator, Kant, then considering Schelling in both his earlier and later phases, and finally, looking once more at Hegel. The investigation of this movement, together with the
£38.70
University of Toronto Press French Existentialism
Book SynopsisIn this study the author makes a comparison between the two main types of existentialism: the Christian and the non-Christian. The comparison is made on four levels: first, the common situation; second, the possibility and means of communication; third, the chosen methods of philosophy; and fourth, the attitude and interpretations in relation to similar subjects. Although the French existentialists have been greatly influenced by Kierkegaard and by contemporary existentialist thought in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, and the United States, the study is limited to the existentialism of contemporary French writers. France in the last fifty years has experienced some of the most crucial events of her history and this common setting for both Christian and non-Christian man turns to Christianity and another militant atheism. It is particularly in France that the split is most clearly made between these two varieties of existentialist thought. Dr. Kingston handles the issues i
£20.69
University of Nebraska Press Arkography
Book SynopsisIn this fascinating text Gunnar Olsson tells the story of an arkographer, who with Pallas Athene's blessings, travels down the Red River Valley, navigates the Kantian Island of Truth, and takes a house-tour through the Crystal Palace, the latter edifice an imagination grown out of Gunnael Jensson's sculpture Mappa Mundi Universalis. This travel story carries the arkographer from the oldest creation epics extant to the power struggles of todaynothing less than a codification of the taken-for-granted, a mapping of the no-man's-land between the five senses of the body and the sixth sense of culture. By constantly asking how we are made so obedient and predictable, the explorer searches for the present-day counterparts to the biblical ark, the chest that held the commandments and the rules of behavior that came with themhence the term arkography, a word hinting at an as-yet-unrecognized discipline. In Arkography Olsson strips bare the governing techniques of self-declared authorities, iTrade Review“This book is a significant contribution to what might be configured as the meeting points between academic geography, Western philosophy, critical social science, and arts-humanistic experimentation. It is the major reference point, the go-to source, for anyone wishing to familiarize themselves with the extraordinarily rich arc of Olsson’s thinking over the past four-plus decades.”—Christopher Philo, professor of geography at the University of Glasgow“Olsson continues to be an exciting thinker because he situates key problems within the field of geography in the broader contexts of Western humanism. . . . A fun, weird, inspiring, and engaging theoretical work. . . . It is a fascinating contribution that will likely be viewed as the capstone work of a major thinker.”—Keith Woodward, assistant professor of geography at the University of Wisconsin–MadisonTable of ContentsPreface: Who Is Who and What Is What? I: Red River Wake Enuma elish Gilgamesh Genesis Exodus Platopolis II: Imaginare Necesse Est Saussurean Bar The Republic Edging Island of Truth Mappa Mundi Universalis III: Crystal Palace Inside Basement Prophets’ Hall Ball Room Attic Penthouse IV: Archives Travelogue Notes Hidden references Alpha and Omega Given Index
£48.60
Cornell University Press Fragile Conviction
Book SynopsisHow do specific secular and religious ideologiessuch as nationalism, neoliberalism, atheism, Pentecostalism, Tablighi Islam, and shamanismgain popularity and when do they lose traction? To answer these questions, Mathijs Pelkmans critically examines the trajectories of a range of ideologies as they move into the post-Soviet frontier in Central Asia. Ethnographically rooted in the everyday life of a former mining town in southern Kyrgyzstan, Fragile Conviction shows how residents have dealt with the existential and epistemic crises that arose after the collapse of the Soviet Empire. Residents became enchanted by the truths of Muslim and Christian missionaries, embraced the teachings of neoliberal and nationalist ideologues, and were riveted by the visions of shamanic healers. But no matter how much enthusiasm and hope these ideas first engendered, the commitment to any of them rarely lasted very long.Pelkmans finds that there is an inverse relationship between the tenacity andTrade ReviewRooted in the author's deep understanding of Kyrgyz society, this is a complex, well-structured and nuanced text.... Readers will come away from the book with a very clear understanding of modern small-town Kyrgyzstan and the nuances governing its society. * LSE Review of Books *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Ideational Power in Times of TurmoilPart I: Uncertain Times and Places1. Shattered Transition: The Reordering of Kyrgyz Society2. Condition of Uncertainty: Life in an Industrial WastelandPart II: Dynamics of Conviction3. What Happened to Soviet Atheism?4. Walking the Truth in Islam with the Tablighi Jamaat5. Pentecostal Miracle Truth on the Frontier6. The Tenacity of Spiritual Healing and Seeing Conclusion: Pulsation and the Dynamics of Conviction
£22.79
Cornell University Press Far from the Caliphs Gaze
Book SynopsisHow do you prove that you''re Muslim? This is not a question that most believers ever have to ask themselves, and yet for members of India''s Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, it poses an existential challenge. The Ahmadis are the minority of a minoritypeople for whom simply being Muslim is a challenge. They must constantly ask the question: What evidence could ever be sufficient to prove that I belong to the faith? In Far from the Caliph''s Gaze Nicholas H. A. Evans explores how a need to respond to this question shapes the lives of Ahmadis in Qadian in northern India. Qadian was the birthplace of the Ahmadiyya community''s founder, and it remains a location of huge spiritual importance for members of the community around the world. Nonetheless, it has been physically separated from the Ahmadis'' spiritual leaderthe caliphsince partition, and the believers who live there now and act as its guardians must confront daily the reality of this separation even while attempTrade ReviewThis book opens new horizons... [it] is solidly researched and makes valuable contributions to several fields. * JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY *Table of ContentsIntroduction: A Troubled Relationship with Truth 1. The History of the Ahmadi-Caliph Relationship 2. An Enchanting Bureaucracy 3. A Failure to Doubt? Polemics and Sectarianism in Qadian 4. Prayer Duels to the Death: The Mubahala 5. Televising Islam: The Aesthetics of Caliphate Conclusion: The Problem with Proof
£97.20
Cornell University Press Far from the Caliphs Gaze
Book SynopsisHow do you prove that you''re Muslim? This is not a question that most believers ever have to ask themselves, and yet for members of India''s Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, it poses an existential challenge. The Ahmadis are the minority of a minoritypeople for whom simply being Muslim is a challenge. They must constantly ask the question: What evidence could ever be sufficient to prove that I belong to the faith? In Far from the Caliph''s Gaze Nicholas H. A. Evans explores how a need to respond to this question shapes the lives of Ahmadis in Qadian in northern India. Qadian was the birthplace of the Ahmadiyya community''s founder, and it remains a location of huge spiritual importance for members of the community around the world. Nonetheless, it has been physically separated from the Ahmadis'' spiritual leaderthe caliphsince partition, and the believers who live there now and act as its guardians must confront daily the reality of this separation even while attempTrade ReviewThis book opens new horizons... [it] is solidly researched and makes valuable contributions to several fields. * JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY *Table of ContentsIntroduction: A Troubled Relationship with Truth 1. The History of the Ahmadi-Caliph Relationship 2. An Enchanting Bureaucracy 3. A Failure to Doubt? Polemics and Sectarianism in Qadian 4. Prayer Duels to the Death: The Mubahala 5. Televising Islam: The Aesthetics of Caliphate Conclusion: The Problem with Proof
£22.79
Stanford University Press Thinking Nature and the Nature of Thinking: From
Book SynopsisA fresh and more capacious reading of the Western religious tradition on nature and creation, Thinking Nature and the Nature of Thinking puts medieval Irish theologian John Scottus Eriugena (810–877) into conversation with American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882). Challenging the biblical stewardship model of nature and histories of nature and religion that pit orthodoxy against the heresy of pantheism, Willemien Otten reveals a line of thought that has long made room for nature's agency as the coworker of God. Embracing in this more elusive idea of nature in a world beset by environmental crisis, she suggests, will allow us to see nature not as a victim but as an ally in a common quest for re-attunement to the divine. Putting its protagonists into further dialogue with such classic authors as Augustine, Maximus the Confessor, Friedrich Schleiermacher, and William James, her study deconstructs the idea of pantheism and paves the way for a new natural theology. Trade Review"In this original and significant study, Willemien Otten presents two major authors for the first time in a comparative perspective. Writing with erudition and elegance, she adds considerably to our understanding of both Eriugena and Emerson, and in doing so establishes herself as a serious religious thinker in her own right."—Brian Stock, University of Toronto and Collège de France"This book seeks no less than to reorient theological thinking away from the stale alternatives of natural theology or special revelation and toward a dialogue of self, God, and nature. In Willemien Otten's rich, detailed, and inventive readings, she persuasively illustrates how to engage religiously with religious texts without having to disdain the blessings of secularity."—James Wetzel, Villanova University"Willemien Otten allows us a new recognition—a literal rethinking—of nature. Hers is a dynamic view of nature that calls on us and even on God to listen to it attentively, and that works with many contemporary materialisms while still challenging those insistently atheistic schools of thought. Its place in these conversations is genuinely important."—Karmen MacKendrick, LeMoyne College"Only an accomplished scholar and philosopher in her own right could meet this challenge: pairing ancient and modern thinkers to address one of the most urgent issues of today. Does not nature amount to much more than what we have made of it? Does not nature think more than is thought? Willemien Otten not only ask these questions, she foresees the answer."—Jean-Luc Marion, University of Paris, Sorbonne"In this very complex exegesis of the theories of ninth-century Irish intellectual Johannes Scotus Eriugena and 19th-century thinker Ralph Waldo Emerson, Otten ... opens a space for an ingenious understanding of nature embedded in the religious thought of two authors distant in time and reputation." –S. A. Mason, CHOICE"Otten's work is valuable not only for its consideration of nature as an independent agent but also for its reconsideration of the Western theological canon more generally. Few scholars could decisively connect as cross-historical an array as Eriugena, Maximus, Augustine, Schleiermacher, James, and Emerson into as cogent and decisive an argument as Otten does in her theorizing of a 'thinking nature,' and the rhetorical move of bringing together such a wide range of historical periods is far from arbitrary."—Zackary Kiebach, Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies"Utilizing the thesis of Thinking Nature and the Nature of Thinking, I believe, paves the way for not only a new natural theology, but a re-imagined Christianity."—Frank Mills, Oran Mór Journal"If natura at its heart concerns things still to be born, then 'thinking nature' would be a thinking for the future. Do such a future and thinking remain open for us today? Are we open to them? Posed increasingly today in soteriological, prophetic, and apocalyptic terms, the question of our human relation with nature can seem increasingly a religious one. But as Otten's work richly argues, perhaps the time of such relation has always been religious, both before and beyond our contemporary mood."—Thomas A. Carlson, Journal of ReligionTable of ContentsIntroduction: Thinking Nature.(and the Nature of Thinking) 1. Thinking Nature in Eriugena and Emerson 2. Panchristology and the Liturgical Cosmos of Maximus the Confessor 3. Creation and the Hexaemeron in Augustine Postscript to Part One 4. Nature as Dispositive Thought in Schleiermacher's Speeches on Religion 5. William James and the Science of Religious Selfhood Conclusion: (Thinking Nature). and the Nature of Thinking
£86.40
Stanford University Press Thinking Nature and the Nature of Thinking: From
Book SynopsisA fresh and more capacious reading of the Western religious tradition on nature and creation, Thinking Nature and the Nature of Thinking puts medieval Irish theologian John Scottus Eriugena (810–877) into conversation with American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882). Challenging the biblical stewardship model of nature and histories of nature and religion that pit orthodoxy against the heresy of pantheism, Willemien Otten reveals a line of thought that has long made room for nature's agency as the coworker of God. Embracing in this more elusive idea of nature in a world beset by environmental crisis, she suggests, will allow us to see nature not as a victim but as an ally in a common quest for re-attunement to the divine. Putting its protagonists into further dialogue with such classic authors as Augustine, Maximus the Confessor, Friedrich Schleiermacher, and William James, her study deconstructs the idea of pantheism and paves the way for a new natural theology. Trade Review"In this original and significant study, Willemien Otten presents two major authors for the first time in a comparative perspective. Writing with erudition and elegance, she adds considerably to our understanding of both Eriugena and Emerson, and in doing so establishes herself as a serious religious thinker in her own right."—Brian Stock, University of Toronto and Collège de France"This book seeks no less than to reorient theological thinking away from the stale alternatives of natural theology or special revelation and toward a dialogue of self, God, and nature. In Willemien Otten's rich, detailed, and inventive readings, she persuasively illustrates how to engage religiously with religious texts without having to disdain the blessings of secularity."—James Wetzel, Villanova University"Willemien Otten allows us a new recognition—a literal rethinking—of nature. Hers is a dynamic view of nature that calls on us and even on God to listen to it attentively, and that works with many contemporary materialisms while still challenging those insistently atheistic schools of thought. Its place in these conversations is genuinely important."—Karmen MacKendrick, LeMoyne College"Only an accomplished scholar and philosopher in her own right could meet this challenge: pairing ancient and modern thinkers to address one of the most urgent issues of today. Does not nature amount to much more than what we have made of it? Does not nature think more than is thought? Willemien Otten not only ask these questions, she foresees the answer."—Jean-Luc Marion, University of Paris, Sorbonne"In this very complex exegesis of the theories of ninth-century Irish intellectual Johannes Scotus Eriugena and 19th-century thinker Ralph Waldo Emerson, Otten ... opens a space for an ingenious understanding of nature embedded in the religious thought of two authors distant in time and reputation." –S. A. Mason, CHOICE"Otten's work is valuable not only for its consideration of nature as an independent agent but also for its reconsideration of the Western theological canon more generally. Few scholars could decisively connect as cross-historical an array as Eriugena, Maximus, Augustine, Schleiermacher, James, and Emerson into as cogent and decisive an argument as Otten does in her theorizing of a 'thinking nature,' and the rhetorical move of bringing together such a wide range of historical periods is far from arbitrary."—Zackary Kiebach, Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies"Utilizing the thesis of Thinking Nature and the Nature of Thinking, I believe, paves the way for not only a new natural theology, but a re-imagined Christianity."—Frank Mills, Oran Mór Journal"If natura at its heart concerns things still to be born, then 'thinking nature' would be a thinking for the future. Do such a future and thinking remain open for us today? Are we open to them? Posed increasingly today in soteriological, prophetic, and apocalyptic terms, the question of our human relation with nature can seem increasingly a religious one. But as Otten's work richly argues, perhaps the time of such relation has always been religious, both before and beyond our contemporary mood."—Thomas A. Carlson, Journal of ReligionTable of ContentsIntroduction: Thinking Nature.(and the Nature of Thinking) 1. Thinking Nature in Eriugena and Emerson 2. Panchristology and the Liturgical Cosmos of Maximus the Confessor 3. Creation and the Hexaemeron in Augustine Postscript to Part One 4. Nature as Dispositive Thought in Schleiermacher's Speeches on Religion 5. William James and the Science of Religious Selfhood Conclusion: (Thinking Nature). and the Nature of Thinking
£23.39
Stanford University Press Another Modernity: Elia Benamozegh’s Jewish
Book SynopsisAnother Modernity is a rich study of the life and thought of Elia Benamozegh, a nineteenth-century rabbi and philosopher whose work profoundly influenced Christian-Jewish dialogue in twentieth-century Europe. Benamozegh, a Livornese rabbi of Moroccan descent, was a prolific writer and transnational thinker who corresponded widely with religious and intellectual figures in France, the Maghreb, and the Middle East. This idiosyncratic figure, who argued for the universalism of Judaism and for interreligious engagement, came to influence a spectrum of religious thinkers so varied that it includes proponents of the ecumenical Second Vatican Council, American evangelists, and right-wing Zionists in Israel. What Benamozegh proposed was unprecedented: that the Jewish tradition presented a solution to the religious crisis of modernity. According to Benamozegh, the defining features of Judaism were universalism, a capacity to foster interreligious engagement, and the political power and mythical allure of its theosophical tradition, Kabbalah—all of which made the Jewish tradition uniquely equipped to assuage the post-Enlightenment tensions between religion and reason. In this book, Clémence Boulouque presents a wide-ranging and nuanced investigation of Benamozegh's published and unpublished work and his continuing legacy, considering his impact on Christian-Jewish dialogue as well as on far-right Christians and right-wing religious Zionists.Trade Review"Another Modernity offers a brilliant portrait of Elia Benamozegh, a fascinating and largely hidden gem of modern Jewish thought. Clémence Boulouque deftly captures the Italian rabbi's singular approach to mysticism, universalism, and the role of Judaism in the modern world; she is the ideal scholar to bring Benamozegh out of an undeserved obscurity." -- Jessica Maya Marglin * University of Southern California *"Clémence Boulouque brilliantly succeeds in elucidating previously neglected aspects of the work of a rabbi and philosopher who lived at the crossroads of irreconcilable worlds, yet provided a broad and consistent version of Judaism that was at once traditional and modern. This intelligent, well-informed, well-written book is an important step towards comprehending the multi-faceted thought of Elia Benamozegh." -- Alessandro Guetta, INALCO * Paris *"Boulouque['s] work gives a detailed description of Benamozegh['s] character and analyzes various aspects of his thought, from political to kabbalistic, with a very rich bibliography... The book is written smoothly, and succeeds to give a complete vision of Benamozegh's thought, analyzing different perspectives, but above all gives a vast overview of what modernity is and how Benamozegh dealt with it, in a different way from classical models." -- Andrea Yaakov Lattes * Sephardic Horizons *Table of ContentsContents and Abstracts1The Moroccan World of a Livornese Jew chapter abstractChapter 1 explores how the fortunes of Livorno, Benamozegh's place of birth and of lifelong residence, where his parents had settled after leaving Morocco, shaped his understanding of diversity, his assertive engagement with the Christian world, and his feeling of alienation from a place once vibrant, but by his time relegated to the commercial and intellectual margins of Europe. His Moroccan background exemplifies the importance of commercial and rabbinic networks in the Mediterranean and accounts for his view of Kabbalah as an essential part of the Jewish tradition in an age when it had generally fallen out of favor among the enlightened figures of Judaism. 2An Italian Jewish Patriot in the Risorgimento chapter abstractChapter 2 delves into Benamozegh's coming of age under the Risorgimento and the way it exposed him to the thinking of its Christian thinkers and ideologues, such as Gioberti and Mazzini. It uncovers how some of his tropes regarding Israel as a nation, articulating patriotism with a universalist and divine mission, were drawn from these towering Italian figures. His redefinition of the interaction between Jews and the nation, and his opposition to the religious rejection of modernity, exemplified by the Pope, are all best understood against the backdrop of the Risorgimento, of which he was a witness and participant. 3The Banned Author and the Oriental Publisher chapter abstractChapter 3 examines how the utter disgrace of a rabbinic ban (herem) affected Benamozegh. In a very rare and harsh measure, his Hebrew biblical commentary was banned and burned in 1865 in Aleppo because it contained too many references to sources outside the Jewish tradition. The herem discouraged Benamozegh from any further major enterprise in Hebrew. However, he kept a presence, as a publisher, in the Mediterranean and his endeavors deserve significant attention: it was the largely Hebrew catalogue of his printing press, with a distribution and network of authors spanning the Maghreb and the Mashriq, that functioned as his commitment to an Oriental modernity. 4Expanding His Readership: Benamozegh's Turn to French chapter abstractChapter 4 examines Benamozegh's turn to a French audience and the affinities of his themes with the main French thinkers of this era, such as Renan, Leroux, or Michelet. The right tone for persuading his readers and the question of the audience he targeted turned out to be stumbling blocks as he tried to refashion himself as an intellectual but, sometimes bombastically, strove to convince secular readers of the need to reassess the significance of religion in order to confront the challenges of modernity. After penning a scathing Jewish and Christian Ethics, his apology for the universal values of Judaism culminated in his posthumous crowning achievement, Israel and Humanity. 5The Afterlives of a Posthumous Manuscript chapter abstractChapter 5 is a study of the fate of Israel and Humanity, Benamozegh's posthumous manuscript, and the controversies that surround the editorial changes made by Benamozegh's Christian disciple, Aimé Pallière, who was entrusted with its publication by the Livornese rabbi's family and turned the 1,900-page manuscript into the 735-page first edition published in 1914. Yet no previous scholarship had ever compared Benamozegh's original manuscript to the one published by Pallière in 1914. This book fills this lacuna and provides further insights into the inner world of Benamozegh and his influences. 6Situating Benamozegh in the Debate on Jewish Universalism chapter abstractChapter 6 situates Benamozegh in the debate about universalism in his time, and about the universalism of Judaism found in the works of Spinoza, Kant, and Mendelssohn. The claim of Jewish universalism, an index of Judaism's adequation with the modern world, must be measured against the competing claims of philosophy, Christianity, and Reform Judaism. Benamozegh also sought to establish the universalism of Judaism based on its antecedence in religious history, thus grounding himself in a sort of modern historicism that he resisted when it came to biblical criticism. He also strove to establish Judaism as a delicate articulation between reason and feelings, which rested on the nascent fields of psychology or anthropology and thus on a more scientific universalism. 7Normativity and Inclusivity in Modernity: The Role and Limits of the Noahide Laws chapter abstractChapter 7 turns to Benamozegh's interpretation of the Noahide Laws, central to his system. Based on rational revelation but with edicts resembling natural law, they convey both internal and external normativity. This ancient legislation functions as a theological construct that sits well with one of modernity's features: the imperative of locating normativity within itself. Additionally, Benamozegh contended, the legislation shows that Judaism is not ethnocentric in nature and manifests its inclusivism. Yet, in his defense of Noahism as a solution for the crisis of Christianity, he turned a blind eye to the laws' arguably hierarchical nature which can be taken as indicating minimal universalism. 8Cosmopolitanism and Universalism: The Political Value of Judaism in an Age of Nations chapter abstractChapter 8 examines the logic of Benamozegh's universalism through his treatment of the role of nations. As a witness and vocal supporter of the Italian Risorgimento and the advent of nation-states, Benamozegh had emphasized the political acumen of Judaism and its relevance to modern, nation-based societies. In his view, universalism could only be achieved through the particularism of nations—not in the abstract manner he believed had been promoted by Pauline Christianity, focused on individuals, which could not elicit any true religious belonging. 9Universalism in Particularism: Benamozegh's Legacies, between Levinas and Religious Zionism chapter abstractChapter 9 demonstrates that the notion of Jewish universalism through particularism is one of Benamozegh's notable contributions, which he predicated on Noahism but also on the role of the nations in Judaism. The French philosopher Levinas is often credited with this concept, which he furthered when he posited a "universalist particularism," an inclusivism that has nevertheless lent itself to conflicting legacies. This chapter probes the tenets of Benamozegh's system and the turn to an ethnocentric reading of Jewish particularism by thinkers such as Léon Askénazi, Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, and the religious-Zionist movement in contemporary Israel. 10Kabbalah: Reason and the Power of Myth chapter abstractChapter 10 describes how Benamozegh penned his defense of Kabbalah as a marker of modernity in a counterintuitive fashion: as both science and myth. First, he redefined Kabbalah as a form of knowledge: by calling it theosophy, and thus imbuing it with scientific overtones, he presented a version of Kabbalah compatible with reason—a far cry from what common enlightened views of it would have been. At the same time, by highlighting its mythical qualities as well, he also sought to show the need for human narratives that go beyond reason. 11Beyond Dualism: Kabbalah and the Coincidence of Opposites chapter abstractChapter 11 is devoted to Benamozegh's presentation of Kabbalah as a vehicle for understanding and achieving religious unity and progress. His use of kabbalistic hermeneutics, predicated on the key concepts of coincidence of opposites, of berur (clarification) and of illuy (elevation), aimed (a) to suspend commonly held binaries such as science and faith, East and West, worldliness and transcendence, and (b) to prove Kabbalah's affinity with nineteenth-century conceptions of assimilation and of progress. 12Kabbalah as Politics chapter abstractChapter 12 examines Benamozegh's reading of Kabbalah as capable of underwriting a political project that involved the remaking of a secretive, esoteric tradition into a public, exoteric conversation. Benamozegh claimed Kabbalah as a centerpiece of Jewish thought that should help to revisit Western culture in order to reform its materialistic tendencies, thus pushing against the Orientalism tropes of his time. This stance foreshadows one of the turning points in the reception of Kabbalah in the twentieth century, exemplified by the works of such thinkers as Yehuda Ashlag, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, and Léon Askénazi, in which its themes and concepts can be used as a political discourse. 13Religious Enmity and Tolerance Reconsidered chapter abstractChapter 13 examines Benamozegh's theoretical constructs, by which he tried to neutralize the notion of religious enmity—a category, he argued, that was created by Christianity and which was bound to foster ontological hostility. In his quest for religious coexistence, he emphasized the concept of interdependence and rejected that of tolerance, which he viewed as an insufficient proposition; it was but a variation on pragmatism or utilitarianism. The chapter also probes Benamozegh's Jewish theology of other religions, and its universalism predicated on the unifying quality of Judaism, against the typology of pluralism and inclusivism. 14"The Iron Crucible" and Loci of Religious Contact chapter abstractChapter 14 focuses on the meaning and loci of religious encounters in the Bible and in the Jewish tradition, and analyzes the concept of "iron crucible," the metaphor Benamozegh used for the complexity of religious assimilation. This metaphor, which refers to the Israelites' sojourn in Egypt, designates a place where identities intermingled and where the Jewish religion was refined through its contact with paganism—but also where, paradoxically, this blending did not preclude a sense of hierarchy in this assimilation process. This concept is a crucial aspect of Benamozegh's system, whereby the greater the proximity, the greater the tension across religious traditions. 15Self-Assertion and a Jewish Theology of Religions chapter abstractChapter 15 details Benamozegh's worldview and the inextricable link between theology and the politics of identity underlying it. The Jewish theology of other religions that he proposed mostly reimagined a relationship with Christianity, one where the tradition of a minority, namely Judaism, could be used to overcome the flaws of the dominant culture. But its tone also raises questions regarding the nature and purpose of religious dialogue: self-reformation or reformation of other religions. Because of its confident (and at times triumphant) tone, it is also a statement about Jewish self-perception in modernity and corresponds to a more assertive turn in Jewish thought at the turn of the century. 16Modes of Interreligious Engagement: From Theory to Social Practices chapter abstractChapter 16 examines the theory and practices of interreligious rapprochement, encounters, and dialogue in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Retracing the stages of such endeavors prior to the Second World War helps refine the categories used to describe these modes of interaction and to consider how they have applied to intellectual efforts and social practices, including the Second Vatican Council in 1965, against the conceptual legacy of Benamozegh. Because Benamozegh's work aimed to bring about religious unity, and because he found a disciple in Aimé Pallière and a posthumous audience for his calls to promote coexistence, assessing the implementation of this prescriptive and convoluted thought is a necessary conclusion of this study.
£53.60
Stanford University Press Religion: Rereading What Is Bound Together
Book SynopsisWith this profound final work, completed in the days leading up to his death, Michel Serres presents a vivid picture of his thinking about religion—a constant preoccupation since childhood—thereby completing Le Grand Récit, the comprehensive explanation of the world and of humanity to which he devoted the last twenty years of his life. Themes from Serres's earlier writings—energy and information, the role of the media in modern society, the anthropological function of sacrifice, the role of scientific knowledge, the problem of evil—are reinterpreted here in the light of the Old Testament accounts of Isaac and Jonah and a variety of Gospel episodes, including the Three Wise Men of the Epiphany, the Transfiguration, Peter's denying Christ, the Crucifixion, Emmaus, and the Pentecost. Monotheistic religion, Serres argues, resembles mathematical abstraction in its dazzling power to bring together the real and the virtual, the natural and the transcendent; but only in its Christian embodiment is it capable of binding together human beings in such a way that partisan attachments are dissolved and a new era of history, free for once of the lethal repetition of collective violence, can be entered into.Trade Review"A stunning book by one of the most profound and original philosophers of science of the twentieth century, written in the final moments that separate life from death. Michel Serres realized that the whole of his thought over the course of an astonishingly prolific career would be incomplete if it did not take into account the indispensable role played by religion in every aspect of human life, and he tells us why in his own inimitable way."—Jean-Pierre Dupuy, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, École Polytechnique, Paris
£86.40
Stanford University Press Green Mass: The Ecological Theology of St.
Book SynopsisGreen Mass is a meditation on—and with—twelfth-century Christian mystic and polymath Saint Hildegard of Bingen. Attending to Hildegard's vegetal vision, which greens theological tradition and imbues plant life with spirit, philosopher Michael Marder uncovers a verdant mode of thinking. The book stages a fresh encounter between present-day and premodern concerns, ecology and theology, philosophy and mysticism, the material and the spiritual, in word and sound. Hildegard's lush notion of viriditas, the vegetal power of creation, is emblematic of her deeply entwined understanding of physical reality and spiritual elevation. From blossoming flora to burning desert, Marder plays with the symphonic multiplicity of meanings in her thought, listening to the resonances between the ardency of holy fire and the aridity of a world aflame. Across Hildegard's cosmos, we hear the anarchic proliferation of her ecological theology, in which both God and greening are circular, without beginning or end. Introduced with a foreword by philosopher Marcia Sá Cavalcante Schuback and accompanied by cellist Peter Schuback's musical movements, which echo both Hildegard's own compositions and key themes in each chapter of the book, this multifaceted work creates a resonance chamber, in which to discover the living world anew. The original compositions accompanying each chapter are available free for streaming and for download at www.sup.org/greenmassTrade Review"Michael Marder brings Hildegard's creativity to light and to life, highlighting what is unique about her and, especially, what makes her such a needed voice that should be heard today."—Willemien Otten, University of Chicago Divinity School"A brilliant meditation on viriditas, where materiality and spirituality meet, and truly a 'resonance chamber' of themes that explore the full range of Hildegard's thinking, from roots to flowers."—Charles M. Stang, Harvard Divinity School"The wordviriditas is important to understand here. The author explains that it literally means 'the greening green,' and figuratively it means 'a self-refreshing vegetal power of creation ingrained in all finite things.' That's a mouthful, but it's also rich and beautiful. Take a moment to ponder such a world. This is St. Hildegard of Bingen's vision of what we inhabit, whether we realize it yet or not... Michael Marder points to the transformational quality of such teachings, for Christians and everyone who seeks to integrate the physical and the spiritual in their lives."—Jon M. Sweeney, Spirituality & Practice"I consider this to be one of the—if not the—most significant books of ecotheology to have appeared in recent years... Rather than attempt to explain Hildegard's many-layered analogies between divine spirit and vegetal mattering, Marder seeks to narrate the conditions under which those analogies could be true. The result is a book that is at once faithful to Hildegard's words (Green Mass is a close reading that cites source texts in detail, and dispenses with footnotes) and promiscuous in hermeneutic."—Simone Kotva, Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology"This is an extraordinary work of ecotheology. Not only is it a book, it is also a meditation at the meeting point of materiality and spirituality, a resonance chamber of Peter Schuback's musical compositions, and an invitation to encounter the present world through medieval mindsets."—Luke Penkett, The WayTable of ContentsPrelude Verges Analogies Resonances Missives Ardencies Anarchies Kisses Postlude
£72.00
Stanford University Press The Re-Enchantment of the World: Secular Magic in
Book SynopsisThe Re-Enchantment of the World is an interdisciplinary volume that challenges the long-prevailing view of modernity as "disenchanted." There is of course something to the widespread idea, so memorably put into words by Max Weber, that modernity is characterized by the "progressive disenchantment of the world." Yet what is less often recognized is the fact that a powerful counter-tendency runs alongside this one, an overwhelming urge to fill the vacuum left by departed convictions, and to do so without invoking superseded belief systems. In fact, modernity produces an array of strategies for re-enchantment, each fully compatible with secular rationality. It has to, because God has many "aspects"—or to put it in more secular terms, because traditional religion offers so much in so many domains. From one thinker to the next, the question of just what, in religious enchantment, needs to be replaced in a secular world receives an entirely different answer. Now, for the first time, many of these strategies are laid out in a single volume, with contributions by specialists in literature, history, and philosophy.Trade Review"[I] would assure any prospective readers interested in the subject that the collection is rich, varied, and overall an excellent and helpful text that I would say 'prepares the soil' for many fruitful discussions on reason, philosophy, art, ecology, poetry, music, and magic."—Peter Duchemin, Analecta Hermeneutica"The Re-Enchantment of the World ultimately becomes richer for its internal diversity. Instead of offering a single argument, it reveals some of the competing agenda and concerns that have clustered around a recent area of critical inquiry, suggesting why it has captured so many scholars' attentions and where it might lead in the future."—Sebastian Lecourt, Religion and the Arts"Joshua Landy and Michael Saler have edited a book that confirms what many modernist scholars have long suspected: existing theories of modern re-enchantment need updating. Their careful and detailed critique of earlier theories of modern re-enchantment is compelling . . . This collection makes clear that any understanding of modern re-enchantment is incomplete without a consideration of its many and varied permutations."—Katherine Elkins, Modernism/Modernity"[T]he writers offer provocative and often brilliant meditations on the possibilities of secular modernity."—Joanna Picciotto, Common Knowledge"'The fate of our times is characterised by the rationalisation and intellectualisation and, above all, by the disenchantment of the world' Or so Max Weber declared in 1917, Joshua Landy and Michael Saler remind us, in introducing this engaging 'smorgasbord' of a book, which ranges freely from environmentalism and architecture on one hand to Gnosticism and poetry on the other."—Journal of the Philosophical Society of England"This interdisciplinary collection challenges the assumption that modernity's secular rationalism banished the sense of 'enchantment'—wonder, mystery, sacredness, order—engendered by religion and myth in earlier times. The 13 contributors discuss attempts to fill the void left by 'the death of God.' These include responses to nature famously detailed by Henry David Thoreau, the less accessible philosophy of Martin Heidegger, and the interest that William James took in psychic phenomena . . . The imaginative reach of these authors is itself a source of wonder, as is their erudition, evidenced by the copious endnotes and 29-page works cited."—CHOICE"This is one of those rare books that creates a paradigm shift in a topic of real importance. These brilliant cross-disciplinary essays present a fresh understanding of secular modernity: the old Weberian disenchantment paradigm lies in tatters and we realize that intellectual and cultural modernisation is soaked in magic and mystery too."—Simon During, Johns Hopkins University
£23.39
Stanford University Press Emmanuel Levinas's Talmudic Turn: Philosophy and
Book SynopsisIn this rich intellectual history of the French-Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas's Talmudic lectures in Paris, Ethan Kleinberg addresses Levinas's Jewish life and its relation to his philosophical writings while making an argument for the role and importance of Levinas's Talmudic lessons. Pairing each chapter with a related Talmudic lecture, Kleinberg uses the distinction Levinas presents between "God on Our Side" and "God on God's Side" to provide two discrete and at times conflicting approaches to Levinas's Talmudic readings. One is historically situated and argued from "our side" while the other uses Levinas's Talmudic readings themselves to approach the issues as timeless and derived from "God on God's own side." Bringing the two approaches together, Kleinberg asks whether the ethical message and moral urgency of Levinas's Talmudic lectures can be extended beyond the texts and beliefs of a chosen people, religion, or even the seemingly primary unit of the self. Touching on Western philosophy, French Enlightenment universalism, and the Lithuanian Talmudic tradition, Kleinberg provides readers with a boundary-pushing investigation into the origins, influences, and causes of Levinas's turn to and use of Talmud.Trade Review"Can we read Levinas's work as wholly immanent to the history of philosophy, or must we see it as the worldly trace of a transcendent truth? Kleinberg explores this contest between history and revelation without presuming to declare the victor. A venturesome and ingeniously crafted book that confirms the author's leading role in modern European intellectual history." -- Peter Gordon * Harvard University *"A boundary-pushing, interdisciplinary work, challenging scholars and students to think through and with the audacity of Levinas's claim for alterity." -- Sarah Hammerschlag * University of Chicago *
£86.40
Stanford University Press Emmanuel Levinas's Talmudic Turn: Philosophy and
Book SynopsisIn this rich intellectual history of the French-Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas's Talmudic lectures in Paris, Ethan Kleinberg addresses Levinas's Jewish life and its relation to his philosophical writings while making an argument for the role and importance of Levinas's Talmudic lessons. Pairing each chapter with a related Talmudic lecture, Kleinberg uses the distinction Levinas presents between "God on Our Side" and "God on God's Side" to provide two discrete and at times conflicting approaches to Levinas's Talmudic readings. One is historically situated and argued from "our side" while the other uses Levinas's Talmudic readings themselves to approach the issues as timeless and derived from "God on God's own side." Bringing the two approaches together, Kleinberg asks whether the ethical message and moral urgency of Levinas's Talmudic lectures can be extended beyond the texts and beliefs of a chosen people, religion, or even the seemingly primary unit of the self. Touching on Western philosophy, French Enlightenment universalism, and the Lithuanian Talmudic tradition, Kleinberg provides readers with a boundary-pushing investigation into the origins, influences, and causes of Levinas's turn to and use of Talmud.Trade Review"Can we read Levinas's work as wholly immanent to the history of philosophy, or must we see it as the worldly trace of a transcendent truth? Kleinberg explores this contest between history and revelation without presuming to declare the victor. A venturesome and ingeniously crafted book that confirms the author's leading role in modern European intellectual history." -- Peter Gordon * Harvard University *"A boundary-pushing, interdisciplinary work, challenging scholars and students to think through and with the audacity of Levinas's claim for alterity." -- Sarah Hammerschlag * University of Chicago *
£23.39
Stanford University Press The Philosophical Pathos of Susan Taubes: Between
Book SynopsisThe Philosophical Pathos of Susan Taubes offers a detailed analysis of an extraordinary figure in the twentieth-century history of Jewish thought, Western philosophy, and the study of religion. Drawing on close readings of Susan Taubes's writings, including her correspondence with Jacob Taubes, scholarly essays, literary compositions, and poems, Elliot R. Wolfson plumbs the depths of the tragic sensibility that shaped her worldview, hovering between the poles of nihilism and hope. By placing Susan Taubes in dialogue with a host of other seminal thinkers, Wolfson illumines how she presciently explored the hypernomian status of Jewish ritual and belief after the Holocaust; the theopolitical challenges of Zionism and the dangers of ethnonationalism; the antitheological theology and gnostic repercussions of Heideggerian thought; the mystical atheism and apophaticism of tragedy in Simone Weil; and the understanding of poetry as the means to face the faceless and to confront the silence of death in the temporal overcoming of time through time. Wolfson delves into the abyss that molded Susan Taubes's mytheological thinking, making a powerful case for the continued relevance of her work to the study of philosophy and religion today.Trade Review"This fascinating book discloses a brilliant portrait of 'a forlorn being,' as Susan Taubes called herself. In letting us eavesdrop on her astonishing thinking, Wolfson writes with a poetic lucidity—and a passion—worthy of his subject."—Vivian Liska, University of Antwerp"Immersing himself in Susan Taubes's texts, Wolfson makes a major contribution to contemporary Jewish thought. Rich, philosophical, and poetic, this book masterfully embeds Susan Taubes's work in a broad network of historical and contemporary thinkers."—Elad Lapidot, University of LilleTable of ContentsIntroduction: Memory and Heeding the Murmuring of the Israelites 1. Ghosts of Judaism and the Serpent Devouring Its Own Tale 2. Zionism and the Sacramental Danger of Nationalism 3. Gnosis and the Covert Theology of Antitheology: Heidegger, Apocalypticism, and Gnosticism 4. Tragedy, Mystical Atheism, and the Apophaticism of Simone Weil 5. Facing the Faceless: Poetic Truth, Temporal Oblivion, and the Silence of Death
£64.80
Stanford University Press The Unknowable in Early Modern Thought: Natural
Book SynopsisEarly modern thought was haunted by the unknowable character of the fallen world. The sometimes brilliant and sometimes baffling fusion of theological and scientific ideas in the era, as well as some of its greatest literature, responds to this sense that humans encountered only an incomplete reality. Ranging from Paradise Lost to thinkers in and around the Royal Society and commentary on the Book of Job, The Unknowable in Early Modern Thought explores how the era of the scientific revolution was in part paralyzed by and in part energized by the paradox it encountered in thinking about the elusive nature of God and the unfathomable nature of the natural world. Looking at writers with scientific, literary and theological interests, from the shoemaker mystic, Jacob Boehme to John Milton, from Robert Boyle to Margaret Cavendish, and from Thomas Browne to the fiery prophet, Anna Trapnel, Kevin Killeen shows how seventeenth-century writings redeployed the rich resources of the ineffable and the apophatic—what cannot be said, except in negative terms—to think about natural philosophy and the enigmas of the natural world.Trade Review"Killeen's work brims with smart scholarship, sharp writing, and surprising discoveries. Deftly threading together the scientific and the mystical, the empirical and the unknowable, this remarkable book provides a new view of science, theology, and the literary forms tying them together."—Jess Keiser, Tufts University"Killeen corrects overly triumphant histories of science, where the new empiricism tames the old vitalism through reason, experiment, et cetera. This is an original book, eccentric in places, which is part of its charm, and full of stylistic flair."—Ryan J. Stark, Corban UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. The Jobean Apophatic and the Symphonic Unknowability of the World 2. The Theopoetics of Jacob Boehme 3. Thomas Browne's Poetics of the Unspeakable 4. The Bewildering Surface from Boyle to Cavendish 5. Anna Trapnel's Aesthetics of Incoherence 6. Miltonic Vertigo and a Theology of Disorientation Epilogue: Ordinary and Exquisite Bafflement
£64.80
Stanford University Press The Unknowable in Early Modern Thought: Natural
Book SynopsisEarly modern thought was haunted by the unknowable character of the fallen world. The sometimes brilliant and sometimes baffling fusion of theological and scientific ideas in the era, as well as some of its greatest literature, responds to this sense that humans encountered only an incomplete reality. Ranging from Paradise Lost to thinkers in and around the Royal Society and commentary on the Book of Job, The Unknowable in Early Modern Thought explores how the era of the scientific revolution was in part paralyzed by and in part energized by the paradox it encountered in thinking about the elusive nature of God and the unfathomable nature of the natural world. Looking at writers with scientific, literary and theological interests, from the shoemaker mystic, Jacob Boehme to John Milton, from Robert Boyle to Margaret Cavendish, and from Thomas Browne to the fiery prophet, Anna Trapnel, Kevin Killeen shows how seventeenth-century writings redeployed the rich resources of the ineffable and the apophatic—what cannot be said, except in negative terms—to think about natural philosophy and the enigmas of the natural world.Trade Review"Killeen's work brims with smart scholarship, sharp writing, and surprising discoveries. Deftly threading together the scientific and the mystical, the empirical and the unknowable, this remarkable book provides a new view of science, theology, and the literary forms tying them together."—Jess Keiser, Tufts University"Killeen corrects overly triumphant histories of science, where the new empiricism tames the old vitalism through reason, experiment, et cetera. This is an original book, eccentric in places, which is part of its charm, and full of stylistic flair."—Ryan J. Stark, Corban UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. The Jobean Apophatic and the Symphonic Unknowability of the World 2. The Theopoetics of Jacob Boehme 3. Thomas Browne's Poetics of the Unspeakable 4. The Bewildering Surface from Boyle to Cavendish 5. Anna Trapnel's Aesthetics of Incoherence 6. Miltonic Vertigo and a Theology of Disorientation Epilogue: Ordinary and Exquisite Bafflement
£23.39
Stanford University Press Interiority and Law: Bahya ibn Paquda and the
Book SynopsisInteriority and Law presents a groundbreaking reassessment of a medieval Jewish classic, Baḥya ibn Paquda's Guide to the Duties of the Hearts. Michaelis reads this work anew as a revolutionary intervention in Jewish law, or halakha. Overturning perceptions of Baḥya as the shaper of an ethical-religious form of life that exceeds halakha, Michaelis offers a pioneering historical and conceptual analysis of the category of "inner commandments" developed by Baḥya. Interiority and Law reveals that Baḥya's main effort revolved around establishing a new legal formation—namely, the "duties of the hearts"—which would deal entirely with human interiority. Michaelis takes up the implications of Baḥya's radical innovation, examining his unique mystical model of proximity to God, which he based on an increasingly growing fulfillment of the inner commandments. With an integrative approach that puts Baḥya in dialogue with other medieval Muslim and Jewish religious thinkers, this work offers a fresh perspective on our understanding of the interconnectedness of the dynamic, neighboring religious traditions of Judaism and Islam. Contributing to conversations in the history of religion, Jewish studies, and medieval studies on interiority and mysticism, this book reveals Baḥya as a revolutionary and demanding thinker of Jewish law.Trade Review"Examining Duties of the Hearts afresh, Michaelis uncovers a much more audacious and radical Baḥyā than the pious image we know. This thoughtful, thoroughly researched, and well-argued book sheds new light on the dynamics that fashioned medieval Jewish thought."—Sarah Stroumsa, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem"Interiority and Law is a masterful achievement. Michaelis has disclosed the philological nuances of Baḥya's classic work with illuminating originality; and with phenomenological insight revealed the inherent spiritual imperatives of Jewish religious practice. This is a work to be studied and cherished by those interested in Jewish and Islamic thought, and their profound interconnections."—Michael Fishbane, University of Chicago"Interiority and Law presents a brilliant and original interpretation of Duties of the Hearts. In Michaelis's compelling reading, Baḥya extends legal normativity to the interior sphere. It is a wonderful and extraordinary contribution."—Moshe Halbertal, The Hebrew University of JerusalemTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Duties and Supererogatory Acts 2. Inner Duties 3. Proximity 4. The World to Come 5. Bāin and Tradition
£50.40
John Wiley and Sons Ltd The Philosophy of Religion: A Critical
Book SynopsisFor over twenty years, Beverley Clack and Brian R. Clack's distinctive and thought-provoking introduction to the philosophy of religion has been of enormous value to students and scholars, providing an approach to the subject that is bold and refreshingly alternative. This revised and updated edition retains the accessibility which makes the book popular, while furthering its distinctive argument regarding the human dimension of religion. The central emphasis of the philosophy of religion – the concept of God, and the arguments for and against God's existence – is reflected in thorough analyses, while alternative approaches to traditional philosophical theism are explored. The treatments of both the miraculous and immortality have been revised and expanded, and the concluding chapter updates the investigation of how philosophy of religion might be conducted in an age defined by religious terrorism. Clear, systematic and highly critical, the third edition of The Philosophy of Religion will continue to be essential reading for students and scholars of this fascinating and important subject.Trade Review‘An engaging and accessible book which gives a clear, critical account of some of the standard topics in philosophy of religion, and also includes stimulating discussion of how religious belief relates to the very human problems of identity, transience and mortality.’John Cottingham, University of Reading ‘This lucid introduction goes beyond the common approaches in Anglo-American philosophy of religion to include engagements with contemporary social movements (feminism, religious violence). The presentations of the usual topics – God’s existence and attributes, miracles, evil, death and immortality – show clearly and fairly the shapes of the debates on these issues. By basing their approach in religion as a human (but not always humane) experience, the Clacks provide a splendid path into the field.’Terrence W. Tilley, Fordham University
£49.50
Fordham University Press Life Under the Baobab Tree: Africana Studies and
Book SynopsisLife Under the Baobab Tree: Africana Studies and Religion in a Transitional Age is a compendium of innovating essays meticulously written by early and later diaspora people of African descent. Their speech arises from the depth of their experiences under the Baobab tree and offers to the world voices of resilience, newness/resurrection, hope, and life. Resolutely journeying on the trails of their ancestors, they speak about setbacks and forward-looking movements of liberation, social transformation, and community formation. The volume is a carefully woven conversation of intellectual substance and structure across time, space, and spirituality that is quintessentially “Africana” in its centering of methodological, theoretical, epistemological, and hermeneutical complexity that assumes nonlinear and dialogical approaches to developing liberating epistemologies in the face of imperialism, colonialism, racism, and religious intolerance. A critical part of this conversation is a reconceptualization and reconfiguration of the concept of religion in its colonial and imperial forms. Life Under the Baobab Tree examines how Africana peoples understand their corporate experiences of the divine not as “religion” apart from its intimate connections to social realities of communal health, economics, culture, politics, environment, violence, war, and dynamic community belonging. To that end Afro-Pessimistic formulations of life placed in dialogic relation Afro-Optimism. Both realities constitute life under the Baobab tree and represent the sturdiness and variation that anchors the deep ruptures that have affected Africana life and the creative responses. The metaphor and substance of the tree resists reductionist, essentialist, and assured conclusions about the nature of diasporic lived experiences, both within the continent of Africa and in the African Diaspora.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Life Under the Baobab Tree: Africana Studies and Religion in a Transitional Age Kenneth N. Ngwa, Aliou Cissé Niang, and Arthur Pressley | 1 PART 1: UN/FOLDING IDENTITIES Archangel Gabriel Speaks to Mary Pamela Mordecai | 23 1. Nella Larsen’s Quicksand: Mourning through Biracial Identities Arthur Pressley | 29 2. Body as Praxis: Disarticulating the Human from Ownership and Property An Yountae | 57 3. What It’s Like to Be a Blackened Body, and Why It’s Like That: A Preliminary Exploration Desmond Coleman | 75 4. The Rhizome and/as the Tree of Life: The Relational Poetics of Wisdom and Decolonizing Biblical Studies A. Paige Rawson | 92 5. Senghorian Négritude and Postcolonial Biblical Criticism Aliou Cissé Niang | 126 PART 2: AFRICANA ACTIVISM Litany on the Line Pamela Mordecai | 171 6. God Killed! God Interrupted, Long Live the People!: Political Theory in Religious Act Nimi Wariboko | 173 7. “Doing the Will of God” as Loving God Whose Way Is Peace Aliou Cissé Niang | 195 8. Mysticism and Mothering in Black Women’s Social Justice Activism: Brazil/USA Rachel Elizabeth Harding | 223 9. A Theopoetics of Exodus and the Africana Spirit in Music Sharon Kimberly Williams | 235 10. Must We Burn Isaac?: A Four-Part Hermeneutical Fantasy for Africana Epistemology Minenhle Nomalungelo Khumalo | 250 PART 3: AFRICANA HISTORIOGRAPHIES AND MEMORIES Temitope Temitope Pamela Mordecai | 273 11. From White Man’s Magic to Black Folks’ Wisdom Althea Spencer Miller | 275 12. Solidarity by Sharing Power: An Inculturated Organic Storytelling of Jonah and Mami Wata ’Shola D. Adegbite | 307 13. Envisioning Africana Religions: Seeking a Distinctive Voice for the Study of Religions in Africa and the African Diaspora Salim Faraji | 328 14. Interpreting from the Back/Black-Side: Exodus through the Shawl of Memory Kenneth N. Ngwa | 355 15. Conjuring Lost Books: (Re-)membering Fragmented Litanies at the Intersection of Africana and Biblical Studies (The Rev. Canon) Hugh R. Page Jr. | 400 Afterword Catherine Keller | 409 List of Contributors | 413 Index of Modern Authors | 419 Index of Ancient Documents | 427
£30.60
Fordham University Press Life Under the Baobab Tree: Africana Studies and
Book SynopsisLife Under the Baobab Tree: Africana Studies and Religion in a Transitional Age is a compendium of innovating essays meticulously written by early and later diaspora people of African descent. Their speech arises from the depth of their experiences under the Baobab tree and offers to the world voices of resilience, newness/resurrection, hope, and life. Resolutely journeying on the trails of their ancestors, they speak about setbacks and forward-looking movements of liberation, social transformation, and community formation. The volume is a carefully woven conversation of intellectual substance and structure across time, space, and spirituality that is quintessentially “Africana” in its centering of methodological, theoretical, epistemological, and hermeneutical complexity that assumes nonlinear and dialogical approaches to developing liberating epistemologies in the face of imperialism, colonialism, racism, and religious intolerance. A critical part of this conversation is a reconceptualization and reconfiguration of the concept of religion in its colonial and imperial forms. Life Under the Baobab Tree examines how Africana peoples understand their corporate experiences of the divine not as “religion” apart from its intimate connections to social realities of communal health, economics, culture, politics, environment, violence, war, and dynamic community belonging. To that end Afro-Pessimistic formulations of life placed in dialogic relation Afro-Optimism. Both realities constitute life under the Baobab tree and represent the sturdiness and variation that anchors the deep ruptures that have affected Africana life and the creative responses. The metaphor and substance of the tree resists reductionist, essentialist, and assured conclusions about the nature of diasporic lived experiences, both within the continent of Africa and in the African Diaspora.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Life Under the Baobab Tree: Africana Studies and Religion in a Transitional Age Kenneth N. Ngwa, Aliou Cissé Niang, and Arthur Pressley | 1 PART 1: UN/FOLDING IDENTITIES Archangel Gabriel Speaks to Mary Pamela Mordecai | 23 1. Nella Larsen’s Quicksand: Mourning through Biracial Identities Arthur Pressley | 29 2. Body as Praxis: Disarticulating the Human from Ownership and Property An Yountae | 57 3. What It’s Like to Be a Blackened Body, and Why It’s Like That: A Preliminary Exploration Desmond Coleman | 75 4. The Rhizome and/as the Tree of Life: The Relational Poetics of Wisdom and Decolonizing Biblical Studies A. Paige Rawson | 92 5. Senghorian Négritude and Postcolonial Biblical Criticism Aliou Cissé Niang | 126 PART 2: AFRICANA ACTIVISM Litany on the Line Pamela Mordecai | 171 6. God Killed! God Interrupted, Long Live the People!: Political Theory in Religious Act Nimi Wariboko | 173 7. “Doing the Will of God” as Loving God Whose Way Is Peace Aliou Cissé Niang | 195 8. Mysticism and Mothering in Black Women’s Social Justice Activism: Brazil/USA Rachel Elizabeth Harding | 223 9. A Theopoetics of Exodus and the Africana Spirit in Music Sharon Kimberly Williams | 235 10. Must We Burn Isaac?: A Four-Part Hermeneutical Fantasy for Africana Epistemology Minenhle Nomalungelo Khumalo | 250 PART 3: AFRICANA HISTORIOGRAPHIES AND MEMORIES Temitope Temitope Pamela Mordecai | 273 11. From White Man’s Magic to Black Folks’ Wisdom Althea Spencer Miller | 275 12. Solidarity by Sharing Power: An Inculturated Organic Storytelling of Jonah and Mami Wata ’Shola D. Adegbite | 307 13. Envisioning Africana Religions: Seeking a Distinctive Voice for the Study of Religions in Africa and the African Diaspora Salim Faraji | 328 14. Interpreting from the Back/Black-Side: Exodus through the Shawl of Memory Kenneth N. Ngwa | 355 15. Conjuring Lost Books: (Re-)membering Fragmented Litanies at the Intersection of Africana and Biblical Studies (The Rev. Canon) Hugh R. Page Jr. | 400 Afterword Catherine Keller | 409 List of Contributors | 413 Index of Modern Authors | 419 Index of Ancient Documents | 427
£113.90
Fordham University Press Faith, Reason, and Theosis
Book SynopsisTheosis shapes contemporary Orthodox theology in two ways: positively and negatively. In the positive sense, contemporary Orthodox theologians made theosis the thread that bound together the various aspects of theology in a coherent whole and also interpreted patristic texts, which experienced a renaissance in the twentieth century, even in Orthodox theology. In the negative sense, contemporary theologians used theosis as a triumphalistic club to beat down Catholic and Protestant Christians, claiming that they rejected theosis in favor of either a rationalistic or fideistic approach to Christian life. The essays collected in this volume move beyond this East–West divide by examining the relation between faith, reason, and theosis from Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant perspectives. A variety of themes are addressed, such as the nature–grace debate and the relation of philosophy to theology, through engagement with such diverse thinkers as Thomas Aquinas, John Wesley, Meister Eckhart, Dionysius the Areopagite, Symeon the New Theologian, Panayiotis Nellas, Vladimir Lossky, Martin Luther, Martin Heidegger, Sergius Bulgakov, John of the Cross, Delores Williams, Evagrius of Pontus, and Hans Urs von Balthasar. The essays in this book are situated within a current thinking on theosis that consists of a common, albeit minimalist, affirmation amidst the flow of differences. The authors in this volume contribute to the historical theological task of complicating the contemporary Orthodox narrative, but they also continue the “theological achievement” of thinking about theosis so that all Christian traditions may be challenged to stretch and shift their understanding of theosis even amidst an ecumenical celebration of the gift of participation in the life of God.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Faith, Reason, and Theosis | 1 Aristotle Papanikolaou and George E. Demacopoulos PART I: THEOTIC EXISTENCE Waking the Gods: Theosis as Reason’s Natural End | 15 David Bentley Hart Does Aquinas Have the Orthodox Concept of Theosis? | 37 Jean Porter Deification as Christification and Human Becoming | 72 Philip Kariatlis Theosis as Kenosis: The Paradox of Holy Intimacy in the Theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar | 93 Carolyn Chau Martin Luther on Faith and Union with God: Speculations on Theosis | 112 Kirsi Stjerna Differentiation as Disfigurement: A Womanist Polemic against the Co-optation of the Divine Essence | 133 Michele E. Watkins PART II: THEOTIC KNOWING Revelation, Reason, and Holiness: A Wesleyan Perspective | 159 William J. Abraham The Ambiguous Meanings of Theosis in Modern and Postmodern Discourse | 176 Andrew Prevot Speculation and Theosis in Vladimir Lossky and Meister Eckhart | 198 Robert Glenn Davis Knowing through Unknowing: The Qualified Necessity of Human Reason in Dionysius | 218 Peter Bouteneff Knowing in Theosis: A Byzantine Mystical Theological Approach | 231 Ashley Purpura Deification in Evagrius Ponticus and the Transmission of the Kephalaia Gnostika in Syriac and Arabic | 251 Stephen J. Davis The Embodied Logos: Reason, Knowledge, and Relation | 267 Rowan Williams Acknowledgments | 293 List of Contributors | 295 Index | 301
£106.25
Fordham University Press Faith, Reason, and Theosis
Book SynopsisTheosis shapes contemporary Orthodox theology in two ways: positively and negatively. In the positive sense, contemporary Orthodox theologians made theosis the thread that bound together the various aspects of theology in a coherent whole and also interpreted patristic texts, which experienced a renaissance in the twentieth century, even in Orthodox theology. In the negative sense, contemporary theologians used theosis as a triumphalistic club to beat down Catholic and Protestant Christians, claiming that they rejected theosis in favor of either a rationalistic or fideistic approach to Christian life. The essays collected in this volume move beyond this East–West divide by examining the relation between faith, reason, and theosis from Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant perspectives. A variety of themes are addressed, such as the nature–grace debate and the relation of philosophy to theology, through engagement with such diverse thinkers as Thomas Aquinas, John Wesley, Meister Eckhart, Dionysius the Areopagite, Symeon the New Theologian, Panayiotis Nellas, Vladimir Lossky, Martin Luther, Martin Heidegger, Sergius Bulgakov, John of the Cross, Delores Williams, Evagrius of Pontus, and Hans Urs von Balthasar. The essays in this book are situated within a current thinking on theosis that consists of a common, albeit minimalist, affirmation amidst the flow of differences. The authors in this volume contribute to the historical theological task of complicating the contemporary Orthodox narrative, but they also continue the “theological achievement” of thinking about theosis so that all Christian traditions may be challenged to stretch and shift their understanding of theosis even amidst an ecumenical celebration of the gift of participation in the life of God.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Faith, Reason, and Theosis | 1 Aristotle Papanikolaou and George E. Demacopoulos PART I: THEOTIC EXISTENCE Waking the Gods: Theosis as Reason’s Natural End | 15 David Bentley Hart Does Aquinas Have the Orthodox Concept of Theosis? | 37 Jean Porter Deification as Christification and Human Becoming | 72 Philip Kariatlis Theosis as Kenosis: The Paradox of Holy Intimacy in the Theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar | 93 Carolyn Chau Martin Luther on Faith and Union with God: Speculations on Theosis | 112 Kirsi Stjerna Differentiation as Disfigurement: A Womanist Polemic against the Co-optation of the Divine Essence | 133 Michele E. Watkins PART II: THEOTIC KNOWING Revelation, Reason, and Holiness: A Wesleyan Perspective | 159 William J. Abraham The Ambiguous Meanings of Theosis in Modern and Postmodern Discourse | 176 Andrew Prevot Speculation and Theosis in Vladimir Lossky and Meister Eckhart | 198 Robert Glenn Davis Knowing through Unknowing: The Qualified Necessity of Human Reason in Dionysius | 218 Peter Bouteneff Knowing in Theosis: A Byzantine Mystical Theological Approach | 231 Ashley Purpura Deification in Evagrius Ponticus and the Transmission of the Kephalaia Gnostika in Syriac and Arabic | 251 Stephen J. Davis The Embodied Logos: Reason, Knowledge, and Relation | 267 Rowan Williams Acknowledgments | 293 List of Contributors | 295 Index | 301
£30.60
Fordham University Press On the Ground: Terrestrial Theopoetics and
Book SynopsisA bold, theoretical, and pragmatic book that looks to soil as a symbol for constructive possibilities for hope and planetary political action in the Anthropocene. Climate change is here. Its ravaging effects will upend our interconnected ecosystems, and yet those effects will play out disproportionately among the planet’s nearly 8 billion human inhabitants. On the Ground explores how one might account for the many paradoxical tensions posed by the Anthropocene: tensions between planetarity and particularity, connectivity and contextuality, entanglement and exclusion. Using the philosophical and theological idea of “ground,” Van Horn argues that ground—when read as earth-ground, as soil—offers a symbol for conceiving of the effects of climate change as collective and yet located, as communal and yet differential. In so doing, he offers critical interventions on theorizations of hope and political action amid the crises of climate change. Drawing on soil science, theopoetics, feminist ethics, poststructuralism, process philosophy, and more, On the Ground asks: In the face of global climate catastrophe, how might one theorize this calamitous experience as shared and yet particular, as interconnected and yet contextual? Might there be a way to conceptualize our interconnected experiences without erasing critical constitutive differences, particularly of social and ecological location? How might these conceptual interventions catalyze pluralistic, anti-racist planetary politics amid the Anthropocene? In short, the book addresses these queries: What philosophical and theological concepts can soil create? How might soil inspire and help re-imagine forms of planetary politics in the midst of climate change? On the Ground thus roots us in a robust theoretical symbol in the hopes of producing and proliferating intersectional responses to climate change.Table of ContentsIntroduction | 1 Interlude: The Differences of Our Soils, the Soils of Our Differences | 15 1. Planting: Ground Is Not Foundation | 18 Interlude: Poetics at the Edge | 42 2. Rooting: Terrestrial Theopoetics of and for the Planetary | 44 Interlude: Mountaintop Removal and the Impossibility of Hope | 62 3. Sprouting: Dark Hope in Undecidable Times | 67 Interlude: Seeds and the Subversive Act of Sowing | 96 4. Blooming: (De)Compositional Planetary Politics | 101 Conclusion | 125 Acknowledgments | 129 Notes | 131 Bibliography | 167 Index | 179
£79.90
Fordham University Press On the Ground: Terrestrial Theopoetics and
Book SynopsisA bold, theoretical, and pragmatic book that looks to soil as a symbol for constructive possibilities for hope and planetary political action in the Anthropocene. Climate change is here. Its ravaging effects will upend our interconnected ecosystems, and yet those effects will play out disproportionately among the planet’s nearly 8 billion human inhabitants. On the Ground explores how one might account for the many paradoxical tensions posed by the Anthropocene: tensions between planetarity and particularity, connectivity and contextuality, entanglement and exclusion. Using the philosophical and theological idea of “ground,” Van Horn argues that ground—when read as earth-ground, as soil—offers a symbol for conceiving of the effects of climate change as collective and yet located, as communal and yet differential. In so doing, he offers critical interventions on theorizations of hope and political action amid the crises of climate change. Drawing on soil science, theopoetics, feminist ethics, poststructuralism, process philosophy, and more, On the Ground asks: In the face of global climate catastrophe, how might one theorize this calamitous experience as shared and yet particular, as interconnected and yet contextual? Might there be a way to conceptualize our interconnected experiences without erasing critical constitutive differences, particularly of social and ecological location? How might these conceptual interventions catalyze pluralistic, anti-racist planetary politics amid the Anthropocene? In short, the book addresses these queries: What philosophical and theological concepts can soil create? How might soil inspire and help re-imagine forms of planetary politics in the midst of climate change? On the Ground thus roots us in a robust theoretical symbol in the hopes of producing and proliferating intersectional responses to climate change.Table of ContentsIntroduction | 1 Interlude: The Differences of Our Soils, the Soils of Our Differences | 15 1. Planting: Ground Is Not Foundation | 18 Interlude: Poetics at the Edge | 42 2. Rooting: Terrestrial Theopoetics of and for the Planetary | 44 Interlude: Mountaintop Removal and the Impossibility of Hope | 62 3. Sprouting: Dark Hope in Undecidable Times | 67 Interlude: Seeds and the Subversive Act of Sowing | 96 4. Blooming: (De)Compositional Planetary Politics | 101 Conclusion | 125 Acknowledgments | 129 Notes | 131 Bibliography | 167 Index | 179
£23.39
Baker Publishing Group Renewing Christian Worldview – A Holistic
Book SynopsisThis brief but comprehensive introduction to Christian worldview helps readers understand the Christian faith as the substance of Spirit-filled living and as a knowledge tradition stemming from the global Pentecostal movement. Using beauty, truth, and goodness as organizing principles, the authors delineate a Christian worldview by tracing each category historically, comparing and contrasting each with alternative Christian expressions, and constructing fresh takes on each as read through the lived Pentecostal experience. Unlike other worldview books, the authors' approach emphasizes beauty (relating to experience) rather than truth (involving knowledge acquisition); that difference in emphasis flows naturally from the Pentecostal perspective, which has traditionally centered the experience of the Spirit. Pentecostal Christians will find this volume indispensable for thinking lucidly about their worldview from a renewal perspective.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Seeking Renewal amid Competing WorldviewsPart 1: Renewing Beauty1. Aesthetic Formation: How Perceptions Shape Us2. A Historical Survey of Beauty and Aesthetics3. Contemporary Christian Aesthetics: Begbie, Balthasar, and Hart4. A Renewal Perspective on Beauty, Aesthetics, and Embodied SpiritualityPart 2: Renewing Goodness5. Civic Engagement: How to Be Salt and Light in the World6. A Historical Survey of Goodness and Ethics7. Contemporary Christian Ethics: Niebuhr, MacIntyre, and Hauerwas8. A Renewal Perspective on Goodness, Ethics, and Civic EngagementPart 3: Renewing Truth9. Cultural Apologetics: How to Speak Truth to Culture10. A Historical Survey of Truth and Knowledge11. Contemporary Christian Epistemologies: Plantinga, Zagzebski, and Lindbeck12. A Renewal Perspective on Truth, Epistemology, and Holistic KnowledgeEpilogue: Living Renewed in a Pluralistic WorldIndex
£21.24
Wilfrid Laurier University Press Eternity and Eternal Life: Speculative Theology and Science in Discourse
Book SynopsisThe Newtonian concept of time has been changed by Einsteinian insight. Yet the Einsteinian world view might make it difficult to appreciate traditional concepts of eschatology, like heaven and hell, death and immortality, life after death and resurrection, last day and final judgments, because these expressions presuppose a pre-Einsteinian view of the universe. Since theology cannot remain unaffected by the new research in concepts of time, Eternity and Eternal Life tries to express the eschatological faith of the Church by using the time language of our age. To achieve this it provides an overview on the research in the nature of time done in geology, cosmology, physics, biology, psychology, sociology, history and philosophy and proposes a notion of time for ""timely"" Christology and for ""timely"" eschatology. By using the singularity event as literary form, Horvath scrutinizes how Christ's time can lead to the times of all existing realities, through death to ""eternity."" This is a pioneering work, one that needs to be tested in the community of interested readers. It is a communal search for an understanding of life, death and eternal life, not only in the light of abstract ideas and cultural linguistic doctrines in the world of religions, but also in the light of science and especially of a person as the horizon of understanding for both time and eternity. Christ as the eschatological union of time and eternity becomes the work's unifying focus and its paradigm, which solves recognized problems and opens our minds to new ones.
£31.41
John Wiley and Sons Ltd Contemporary Philosophy of Religion
Book SynopsisThis volume provides a vivid and engaging introduction to contemporary philosophy of religion.Trade Review"Taliafero’s work is a major contribution. It shows mastery of the field, the capacity to think creatively within it, and and usual ability to write clear and engaging prose. This book will quickly become an indispensable teaching tool." Paul J. Griffiths, University of Chicago "Taliafero’s book combines a staggering breadth of research with a careful attention to organization and development the result is an extremely helpful map of the conceptual landscape in contemporary philosophy of religion." Patricia Sayre, Saint Mary’s College "Taliafero has written a lively, engaging introduction to contemporary philosophy of religion. It combines current ‘front-burner’ issues with a solid background of traditional themes, and incorporates welcome attention to non-Western religious traditions." William Hasker, Huntington College "Taliafero provides and open-minded and stimulating introduction which will encourage readers to form their own views about some of the deepest issues confronting human beings." Roger Trigg, University of Warwick "While he places at the center of the book the philosophical articulation of theism and theistic themes, author Taliafero develops these themes in conversation with four other living world religion, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, an Buddhism, and with various atheistic or agnostic challenges to them. This is first-rate book and will be useful in the classroom." Michael Beaty, Baylor UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgments x Introduction 1 1 Religious Beliefs 14 2 Religious Practices and Pictures of Reality 36 3 Divine Power 61 4 Materialism, Positivism and God 83 5 Divine Intelligence and the Structure of the Cosmos 106 6 The Transcendence of the Sacred 143 7 God, Values, and Pluralism 189 8 Evidence, Experience, and God 246 9 The Problem of Evil and the Prospects of Good 299 10 Theism and Naturalism350 Bibliography 394 Index 421
£35.10
John Wiley and Sons Ltd The Philosophy of Religious Language: Sign,
Book SynopsisThis text provides a lively introduction to the developments in philosophy of language in this century, and to the way these have impinged upon religious language. Included is the relevance of analytical philosophy of language, but the text also covers important historical debates about religious language that have had increasing impact upon biblical studies and theology.Trade Review"This is an excellent critical survey of the modern philosophy of language in general, and of religious language in particular, deftly set against the background of its traditional forerunners. It is readable, colourful, and richly informative, without being simplistic or sweeping in its descriptions and judgements." Steven Kings, Reviews in Religion and Theology "Dan Stiver offers, for "tose coming to these topics for the first time", a useful map to an academic (sub)discipline called philosophy of religious language." Brian Davies, Anglican Theological ReviewTable of ContentsPreface ix Acknowledgements xiii 1 Introduction 1 The Linguistic Turn in Philosophy 4 The Linguistic Turn in Religion 6 Philosophical Foundations 8 2 Historical Approaches to Religious Language 14 Three Traditional Ways 15 The negative way 16 The Univocal way 20 The Analogical way 23 The Universal Controversy 29 Literal and Allegorical Exegesis 31 3 The Falsification Challenge 37 The Early Wittgenstein 37 Logical Positivism 42 The Falsification Challenge 47 4 Language Game 59 The Later Wittgenstein 59 Religious Language as Noncognitive 67 Wittgenstein on religion 67 Wittgensteinian fideism 69 Religious Language as Cognitive 72 John Wisdom 73 Ian T. Ramsey 74 Ian Crombie 78 Speech-act Theory 79 Austin 80 McClendon and Smith 82 5 Hermeneutical Philosophy 87 From Religious to General Hermeneutics 87 Ontological Hermeneutics 90 Critical Hermeneutics 96 Ricoeur and Critical Hermeneutics 100 Reader-response Theory 107 6 Metaphor, Symbol and Analogy 112 Metaphor as Ornamental 113 Metaphor as Cognitive 114 Symbol and Analogy 122 Metaphor in Exegesis 127 Metaphor in Theology 129 7 Narrative Theology 134 The Chicago School 135 The Yale School 139 Hans Frei 140 George Lindbeck 145 Ronald Thiemann 150 The California School 154 James Wm McClendon Jr 154 Michael Goldberg 155 Terrence Tilley 159 8 Structuralism and Poststructuralism 163 Structuralism 163 De Saussure’s influence on Structuralism 163 Structuralist thinkers 166 Critique 171 Structuralism in Religious Studies 173 Ricoeur 174 Thiselton 175 Patte 177 Crossan and Via 178 Poststructuralism 180 Derrida 181 Foucault 184 Critique 186 Poststructuralism in Religious Studies 188 9 Conclusion: A Changing Paradigm 193 Reducing the Contrasts 194 A Changing Paradigm 197 Religious Language and Truth 201 Notes 206 Recommended Reading 246 Index 251
£38.90
Temple University Press,U.S. Voices Of The Religious Left
Book SynopsisWhat has happened to the religious left? If there is a religious left, why don't we hear more about it? The academics and activists who write this rich volume, edited by Rebecca Alpert, argue passionately on topics that concern all of us. Quoting from the Bible, the Torah, the Qur'an, the teachings of Buddha, as well as Native American folklore, they make the voices of the religious left heard -- teaching lessons of peace and liberation. As this invaluable sourcebook shows, the religious left is committed to issues of human rights and dignity. Answering questions of identity and ideology, the essays included here stem from the \u0022culture wars\u0022 that have divided orthodox and liberal believers. Responding to the needs of and raised by marginalized social groups, the writers discuss economic issues and religious politics as they champion equal rights, and promote the teaching of progressive vision. Containing insightful perspectives of adherents to many faiths, Voices of the Religious Left makes it clear that there is a group dedicated to instilling the values of justice and freedom. They are far from silent. All of the essays in this collection \u0022...represent the power of the written word as a vehicle for advocacy and social change. ..It is my hope that the readers of these essays will themselves feel compelled to think more about the importance of taking a stand on issues from religious perspectives, and to act on something that compels them.\u0022 --Rabbi Rebecca AlpertTrade Review"...chock-full of politically engaged, theologically and textually grounded essays... Many of the essays also provide serious spiritual ammunition... Voices illuminates the ways some people have taken their sense of religious duty out into a broken world and infused their in-the-trenches tikkun olam with a relationship to the bigger picture. The magic here is both in the details and in the sweeping sense that we are all, in fact, working toward the same goals from, as somebody once said, a thousand points of light. Until we can get there, Voices of the Religious Left offers indispensable, high-octane edification and inspiration-just what we'll need along the way." -Danya Rutttenberg, LILITH "Alpert's collection is of genuine service for understanding and engaging with contemporary perspectives of 'the religious left'..." -Nova Religio "This book does a fine job of showing how the religious left can be part of religious belief, including for those who, for the most part, adhere to fairly traditional religious beliefs." -Journal of Church and StateTable of ContentsCONTENTS Introduction -- Rebecca T. Alpert Part One: Making Progressive Religious Theology / Warrant for Progressive Religious Thought and Action "Renewing the Heart of Faith," Jim Wallis "Womanist Theology: Black Women's Voices," Delores Williams "Theology as Public Responsibility," Richard A. McCormick and Richard P. McBrien "Reflections from a Latin American Theologian," Gustavo Gutierrez "Canaanites, Cowboys, and Indians: Deliverance, Conquest, and Liberation Theology Today," Robert Allan Warrior "Re-imagining God: Reflections in Mirrors, Motheroot, and Memory," Rita Nakashima Brock "Martin Luther King and the Future of America," Vincent Harding Part Two: Focusing on the Issues 1. Though suffering is limitless, I vow to end it "The Skewing of America: Disparities in Wealth and Income," Ron Pasquariello "Poverty, Women, and Reproduction: Welfare Reform and Social Justice," Catholics for a Free Choice (policy statement) "Jews, Money, and Responsibility," Lawrence Fush and Jeffrey Dedro "Options of the Poor: Preference or Platitude?" Thomas J. Paprocki 2. The Earth is the Lord's "The Greening of Buddhist Practice," Kenneth Kraft "The Theological Basis of Animal Rights," Andrew Linzey "From Compassion to Jubilee" 3. My Brother's Keeper "Aparteid as Idolatry," James H. Evans "Passover and the Palestinians," Arthur Waskow "The Martyr's Living Witness," Daniel Berrigan "Back to the Dust: How I Rediscovered the Power of Scriptures," Barbara Holmes "Catholics and Colonialism: The Church's Failure in Rwanda," Todd Salzman 4. Proclaim Liberty "Full Circle of Liberation: An American Indian Theology of Place," George Tinker "The Upward Mobility of the Gospel," Helen Prejean "Between Frick and Steel," Mumia Abu-Jamal "Release the Prisoners," Elizer Valentin-Castonon "Free Speech in Pauline Political Theory," David Fredrickson 5. Neither Male nor Female "The Worth of a Woman," Laila Al-Marayati "Violence Against Women: The Theological Dimension," Mary Pellauer "Coming to Terms with Leviticus," Rebecca Alpert "Homosexuality: Challenging the Church to Grow," John McNeill "Searching Scripture for a Model of the Family," Rosemary Radford Ruether "The New York Times Ad: A Case Study in Religious Feminism," Mary Hunt and Frances Kissling "Anti-abortion / Prochoice: Taking Both Sides," Helen Tworkov Part Three: Building Bridges; Know one another "Difference is No Excuse for Hatred," Diana Eck "American Christians, Jews, and Muslims Working Together for Middle East Peace," Ronald Young "Reconsidering Christopher Columbus and the Recovery of a Biblica Theology Mission," Wi Jo Kang "The Church's False Witness Against the Jews," Carl Evans "Arena for Interaction," Lee Ranck
£30.60
St Augustine's Press Ecumenical Jihad – Ecumenism and the Culture War
Book SynopsisJuxtaposing “ecumenism” and “jihad,” two words that many would consider strange and at odds with one another, Peter Kreeft argues that we need to change our current categories and alignments. We need to realize that we are at war and that the sides have changed radically. Documenting the spiritual and moral decay that has taken hold of modern society, Kreeft issues a wake-up call to all God-fearing Christians, Jews, and Muslims to unite together in a “religious war” against the common enemy of godless secular humanism, materialism, and immorality. Aware of the deep theological differences of these monotheistic faiths, Kreeft calls for a moratorium on our polemics against one another so that we can form an alliance to fight together to save Western civilization.
£15.20
St Augustine's Press The Essential Supernatural – A Dialogical Study
Book SynopsisSøren Kirkegaard and Maurice Blondel are positioned together in a dialogue regarding the vision of the supernatural. Maurice Ashley Agbaw-Ebai draws from this a sharper image of the preeminent place religious experience possesses in human life and thought. Kirkegaard's lament of Christian lack of fervor and Blondel's concern that religion and philosophy no longer interact are both examined and Agbaw-Ebai concludes that they both indicate the same outcome: a "dominant leveling of society" that robs religion of its particularity. This devastates the individual because he is no longer challenged to seek a relationship with God and expose himself to the supernatural. The boundlessness of man must be acknowledged or else his actions will never be understood, and religious experience and philosophy must coexist with mutual reference or self-knowledge will never amount to the discovery of supernatural destiny. And this, asserts Agbaw-Ebai, is the shared urgency of both Kirkegaard and Blondel. Like these philosophers who have preceded him, Agbaw-Ebai exhorts us to never allow the sense of our relation to the supernatural as a settled matter. The philosophy of religion we have inherited does not protect us from having to confront our own subjectivity with autonomy: to be God without God and against God, or to be God with and through God.Trade ReviewPlato wrote that truth is best seen in dialog, when two minds meet and sparks of truth flame out as from the contact between flint and steel. This is especially true when there are both strong agreements and strong differences between those two minds. This scholarly comparison of Kierkegaard and Blondel fits that model well. The differences are at first stark: Kierkegaard was strongly Protestant, Blondel was strongly Catholic; Kierkegaard focused on choice, Blondel on action; Kierkegaard is usually classified as an "existentialist," Blondel as a "personalist" or a "phenomenologist." What holds them together at their center? Not that both were philosophers, or that both were Christians, or that both happened to be both philosophers and Christians, but that both were Christian philosophers, whose center was Christ, and therefore both God and man, His image. Fr. Maurice helps us to see how these two very different personal temperaments and philosophical methods meet and see a similar light, not despite their divergence but in and because of it. I found this work surprising and enlightening, and I found Fr. Maurice to be a reliable, sympathetic, and trustable guide through both of these challenging thinkers. To call a philosopher "challenging" is often a negative euphemism for "difficult to comprehend." But in this case it is not negative but positive. Like Jesus and Socrates, both Kierkegaard and Blondel "challenge" us to a duel--a duel not with them but with some of our easiest and laziest assumptions about the intrinsic dynamism and restlessness of our very selves. This book should come with gentle warning labels to those who dislike that kind of challenge. — Peter Kreeft, Professor of Philosophy, Boston College
£32.30
St Augustine's Press Homo Viator – Introduction to the Metaphysic of
Book SynopsisThis edition of Marcel’s inspiring Homo Viator has been updated to includle fifty pages of new materials available for the first time in English, making this the first English-language edition to conform to the standard French edition. Here, Christianity’s foremost existentialist of the twentieth century gives us a prodigious personal insight on ‘man on the way’ that will reinforce and commend our own pilgrimages in hope.“Homo Viator – “Homo Viator – or as Marcel calls him, ‘itinerate man’ – is an outstanding example of the philosophy concerned, not with technical problems, but with the urgent problems of man. Marcel talks to our condition, emphasizing our urgent need of hope, thus discovering beyond the lack of stability the values on which we may depend. “A subtle mind, a dramatist as well as a philosopher, close to the texture of human experience, he goes far beyond current platitudes to show that our Western tradition contains living truths that are as essential to our contemporary life as they were to our ancestors when they discovered them.” – Eliseo Vivas“The theme of Marcel’s Homo Viator is close to the center of all preoccupations: man in his pilgrim condition. With great virtuosity in the use of his own philosophical method, he probes into interpersonal relations and the threat to ethical values. Marcel excels here in his concrete analyses of the attitude of hope, the family community in its temporal and supratemporal aspects, and the forgotten virtue of personal fidelity.” – James Collins
£18.58
St Augustine's Press The Legitimacy of the Human
Book SynopsisThe Legitimacy of the Human presents itself as a satellite work to a more voluminous effort by Rémi Brague, The Kingdom of Man. The larger book argues the thesis of the increasingly visible failure of the modern project, founded upon a view of man as thoroughly emancipated and autonomous, his own sovereign and the world’s. This is most visible in our technological powers and predicaments, with their ever-growing capacity to destroy or fundamentally transform our humanity, but understandings of freedom and equality unable to justify themselves before the bar of reason, but willfully asserting themselves, complement the picture. If modernity’s precious gains are to be preserved, and with them their beneficiaries, modern human beings, then the founding thoughts of the modern world need to be revisited and revised, often in terms of a creative reengagement with premodern ones. A new, truly humanistic, culture needs to be sought. The Legitimacy of the Human drives home that basic argument, surveying contemporary challenges to the very existence of humanity, then interrogating modern thought and philosophy for reasons it might have for the continuation of the human adventure. Brague finds the self-proclaimed advocates of the modern strikingly silent or even negative about the proposition. To be sure, in many instances modern philosophy has helped humanity organize itself better in terms of justice, peaceful coexistence, and prosperity. But on the basic question whether it is good that humans exist, it is strangely tongue-tied. Other authorities must be consulted, other sources drawn from, to credibly answer that fundamental existential question. The last two chapters of the book hearken to the answer of the biblical God, as expressed in Genesis 1 and recapitulated by the Word Incarnate of the Gospels.
£19.95
St Augustine's Press Light of Reason, Light of Faith – Joseph
Book SynopsisFr. Maurice Ashley Agbaw-Ebai, a native of Cameroon, has written a fresh, exciting new study of the lifelong engagement of Josef Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, with the German Enlightenment and its contemporary manifestations and heirs. Contemporary European disdain for organized religion and the rise in secularism on that continent has deep roots in the German Enlightenment. To understand contemporary Europe, one must return to this crucial epoch in its history, to those who shaped the European mind of this era, and to a study of the ideas they espoused and propagated. These ideas, for good or for ill, have taken hold in other parts of the modern world, being incarnated in many minds and institutions in contemporary society and threatening to enthrone a disfigured rationality without faith or a sense of Transcendence. Ratzinger’s extraordinary and sympathetic understanding of the sources of contemporary secularism equipped him to appreciate the gains of the Enlightenment, while still being a fierce critic of the losses humanity has suffered when reason falsely excludes faith. Fr. Agbaw-Ebai’s account reveals Ratzinger, in relation to his various interlocutors, to be the truly “enlightened” one because he demonstrates a truly balanced understanding of the human mind. To be truly rational one must be able to hold to faith and reason both, reason informed by faith in Jesus Christ. A particular merit of this book is Agbaw-Ebai’s presentation of Ratzinger’s treatment of the German Enlightenment’s greatest contributors: Kant, Nietzche, Hegel and Habermas, among others. In the postscript George Weigel characterizes what this study accomplishes in the larger framework of scholarship. “[Ratzinger’s] position remains too often misunderstood, and sometimes deliberately misinterpreted, throughout the whole Church. And to misunderstand, or misinterpret, Ratzinger is to misunderstand or misinterpret both the modern history of theology and the Second Vatican Council.” Agbaw-Ebai masterfully positions Ratzinger correctly in the history of ideas, and exhibits why Ratzinger will be remembered as one of its main players. Pure rationalists and true believers are equally indebted to him.Trade ReviewNo Pope has ever spoken so frequently or fulsomely of the legacy of the Enlightenment as has Pope Benedict XVI. He repeatedly stressed the need for Christianity to welcome the real achievements of Enlightenment thought, while insisting with equal vigor on the role of faith as a purifying force for reason. With this exploration of the influence of the Aufklärung on the Emeritus Pope’s lifelong preoccupation with faith and reason, Father Maurice Agbaw-Ebai makes a welcome contribution to Ratzinger studies. This work by a young Cameroonian scholar is a major contribution to the fulfillment of Benedict’s cherished hopes for Africa’s role in the New Evangelization. Mary Ann Glendon, Professor of Law, Emeritus, Harvard UniversityA profound philosophical investigation of one of the key dialogs and dialectics of our time: between the Church (represented by a truly great pope, philosophers, and the "Enlightenment" that weaned most intellectuals away from her. Like Ratzinger himself, Father Ebai's writing is dense and deep but well worth the effort required to engage it. Peter Kreeft, Philosophy Department, Boston College A journalist once joked to me that ‘Ratzinger would give his right leg for reason’ and he asked why reason is so important for him. This work by Fr Agbaw-Ebai is the definitive answer to that question. It demonstrates that for Ratzinger/Benedict the eighteenth century’s interest in reason and history was already very much present in Christian self-understanding centuries before the arrival of the era of the philosophes. Like the great Romano Guardini Ratzinger has always emphasized the priority of Logos over Ethos. For him Christianity is the universal truth, not merely some moral code or historically significant European narrative. This work deftly unpacks the various ways in which the great modern church doctor deploys the concept of Logos in his theological reflections. Tracey Rowland, St John Paul II Chair of Theology, University of Notre Dame (Australia)Contemporary European disdain for organized religion and the rise in secularism on that continent owes its roots partly to the Enlightenment. Thus, to understand modern Europe one has to return to this epoch in its history, to those who shaped the European mind of this era and to a study of the ideas which they espoused and propagated. These ideas, for good or for ill have taken hold in other parts of the modern world, being incarnated in many minds and institutions in contemporary society and threatening to enthrone a world where only a certain kind of rationality without faith or a sense of Transcendence reigns supreme. In this extremely well -written book, Fr Maurice Ashley Agbaw-Ebai provides a detailed study of the way Joseph Ratzinger/ Pope Benedict XI has devoted a considerable portion of his career as theologian, philosopher, priest, bishop and Pope to dialogue with the Enlightenment and its contemporary manifestations, and heirs. Because Ratzinger, more than most theologians and Christian philosophers of his era understands the source of contemporary secularism, he is more equipped than most to address the challenges it poses for faith in general and for the Christian faith in particular. To face up to the challenges posed by the Enlightenment Ratzinger shows himself quite conversant with the trends and sources which inform the contemporary heirs of the Enlightenment. While appreciating some of the gains of the Enlightenment, he is fiercely critical of the losses which reason without faith pushes on humanity. It is as if humanity were being forced to breathe with just one lung. In Fr Agbaw-Ebai’s book, Ratzinger comes out in relation to his various interlocutors as the truly ‘enlightened’ one because he demonstrates a truly balanced understanding of the human mind. To be truly rational one must be able to hold to faith and reason as two sides of the same coin. A faith that disdains reason would be no faith at all and vice versa. The balance to strive for is that of reason informed by faith - more particularly, faith in Jesus Christ. In Jesus, the logos becomes incarnate, and fully shows what it means to be human. The scope and breadth of Fr Agbaw-Ebai’s erudition in this book is quite comprehensive and impressive. He reads Ratzinger very carefully and very well. He also reads those whom Ratzinger is reading or is in dialogue with very well. He integrates these sources quite well. The result is both a readable book in which one learns a lot about history, theology, philosophy and the social sciences, and a reference work to which one can turn for quick reference on any number of issues about the Christian faith and about the modern world. This is no mean achievement. Well done, well done, indeed! Rev Paulinus I. Odozor, C.S.Sp, Professor of Moral Theology/Christian Ethic and the Theology of World Church, University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA
£34.20
St Augustine's Press Master Thomas Aquinas and the Fullness of Life
Book SynopsisProfessor John F. Boyle’s lecture, Master Thomas Aquinas and the Fullness of Life, is a piece that combines a profoundly personal element – the experience of someone who has chosen St. Thomas as his own teacher and master – with the learnedness of one of the most respected contemporary American scholars of the thought of Thomas Aquinas. What we are offered in Professor Boyle’s lecture is not the kind of arid and lifeless speculation that is sometimes – albeit mistakenly – associated with Aquinas’s own style. Boyle emphasizes that Aquinas was far from being a “brain on a stick,” a theologian and thinker so deeply immersed in speculation as to lose sight of the real world, and indeed of what matters in the real world. For what matters in the real world is life, and our ability to conduct this life is a way that is in accordance with the deepest longings of human nature. Boyle demonstrates, with both learning and wit, that it is precisely this life, in its fullness, to which St. Thomas endeavors to lead his students through his teaching. This life has its roots in the humble operations of living that we share with creatures such as plants and animals; it rises to the properly human level in the selfdirection of which we are capable through intellect and will, and which enables us to form ourselves morally in habits that become “second natures” for us; and it is perfectedin the supernatural life of faith in which Christ becomes our teacher and master, who leads us to eternal life with his Father. With Master Boyle through Master Thomas to the Master: that could be the motto of this Aquinas Lecture, which was delivered at the University of Dallas on January 28, 2013. Although the University of Dallas has hosted an annual Aquinas Lecture since 1982, Master Thomas Aquinas and the Fullness of Life is the first to be made available in this new series.
£14.87
St Augustine's Press Proslogion – including Gaunilo Objections and
Book SynopsisWritten for his brother Benedictine monks around 1077, Anselm’s Proslogion is perhaps the best-known partially-read book of the Middle Ages. Many readers are familiar only with Anselm’s well-known argument for God’s existence in Chapters 2–4, which is often called the “ontological argument,” a misleading appellation coined centuries later by Immanuel Kant. In this argument Anselm begins with the thought of “something than which nothing greater is able to be thought,” and subsequently he leads the reader to see that such a reality necessarily exists and cannot be thought not to be. This argument – which is, to be sure, crucial to the work constitutes – but a small portion of the whole. Preceding it is a profound but oft-overlooked opening chapter in which Anselm contemplates his all-too-human condition and disposes the reader to receive aptly his argument for God’s existence in the next three chapters. And following this argument are 20 chapters in which Anselm artfully unfolds the depth and breadth of God’s true existence as that than which nothing greater is able to be thought, showing God to be (among other things) able-to-sense, pity-hearted, just, good, and uncircumscribed. Indeed, if the reader is willing to give himself over to the work as whole, he will be compelled, under Anselm’s deft guidance, to “endeavor to straighten up his mind toward contemplating God,” which is how Anselm describes his own role in the work in his prefatory remarks.This edition provides a faithful yet readable English rendering of the whole Proslogion, the objections raised to Anselm’s argument by his contemporary Gaunilo, and Anselm’s replies to those objections. (After responding to Gaunilo, Anselm himself requested that these objections and replies be included in subsequent editions of the Proslogion.) This edition also includes an introduction that contextualizes the Proslogion within the monastic, pre-Scholastic age in which it first made its appearance. In addition, by means of notes and commentary, this edition articulates how to contextualize Anselm’s famous argument in the Proslogion as a whole and in light of his replies to Gaunilo, how to appreciate the artistry whereby Anselm knit the Proslogion together into a coherent and concise unity, and how the work may be taught effectively to interested students. These features set this affordable English edition of the Proslogion apart from those currently available, which too often fail to capture accurately the beauty of Anselm’s prose, which often treat the work through the lens of either later Scholasticism or contemporary analytic philosophy of religion, and which take little note of the craftsmanship whereby Anselm constructed this masterfully integrated work that is remembered too often for too few of its 24 chapters.Matthew Walz has taught in the interdisciplinary program at Thomas Aquinas College in California, and since 2008 he has been a professor in the Philosophy Department of the University of Dallas.
£999.99
St Augustine's Press Sacred Monster Of Thomism – Life & Legacy
Book SynopsisThis new paperbound edition of The Sacred Monster of Thomism (the epithet comes from François Mauriac) is the first full-length study of the life and thought of the most influential Dominican theologian in the first half of the twentieth century, and the scourge of liberal theologians everywhere. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange taught at the Angelicum for fifty years, held the first chair of spiritual theology in the Church’s history, and authored twenty-eight books and over six hundred articles. He was also the doctoral dissertation director for Pope John Paul II. This work sketches the life and general context of Garrigou’s life, discusses at length the most important factor in his life – his affiliation with the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) – and examines his philosophical disputes with Henry Bergson and Maurice Blondel, his theological (and political) disputes with Jacques Maritain and M.- Dominique Chenu, and ends with the chapters examining Garrigou’s Thomism and his approaches to theology and spirituality.
£18.58
St Augustine's Press Thou Shall Not Die
Book Synopsis
£14.87
Baylor University Press The Long Truce: How Toleration Made the World Safe for Power and Profit
Book SynopsisThe political dogma of toleration is little more than a tool of the modern state in its drive for power and wealth. In The Long Truce, A. J. Conyers shows that by banishing questions of ultimate meaning from public life, the modern version of toleration has debased our politics and undermined social cohesion. He argues provocatively for a return to the authentic toleration found in pre-Reformation Christianity.Trade ReviewThe Long Truce is a book to read and reread. -Donald Livingston, Professor of Philosophy, Emory UniversityConyers's book launches an engaging assault on one of the great sacred cows of modern political science and religious studies, the doctrine of toleration....this is a provocative work that ought to be read widely by undergraduates as well as graduate students in ethics and political science, not only for the genealogy of toleration that it offers but also for its constructive proposal. -- Religious Studies ReviewTable of Contents Preface 1. The Cunning of History 2. The Ecumenical Impulse 3. A Feeling of Uncertainty 4. Thomas Hobbes and the Fears of Modernity 5. Pierre Bayle and the Modern Sanctity of the Individual 6. John Locke and the Politics of Toleration 7. The Triumph of Toleration 8. The Shadow Leviathan 9. Nihilism and the Catholic Vision 10. High Tolerance Notes Index
£23.96
Baylor University Press Kierkegaard on Faith and the Self: Collected Essays
Book SynopsisKierkegaard on Faith and the Self represents a rich collection of studies that allow Soren Kierkegaard to speak directly to the questions of contemporary readers. Evans analyzes Kierkegaard as a philosopher, his perspectives on faith, reason, and epistemology, ethics, and his view of the self. Evans makes a strong case that Kierkegaard has something crucial to say to the Christian church as a philosopher and something equally crucial to say to the philosophical world as a Christian believer.Trade Review"[E]xcellent and well-written... It is clear that Evans' love for Kierkegaard is driven by his conviction that Kierkegaard will help one become both a better philosopher and a better Christian. With this in mind, Evans exhorts his reader to pick up Kierkegaard for herself, to be troubled by Kierkegaard in a good way." -- Prespectives in Religious Studies (2011, 38:1)"A treasure trove from one of the worlds finest Kierkegaard scholars. Fully sensitive to both the philosophical and theological dimensions of Kierkegaards thought, Evans makes connections one will not find elsewhere. Like Kierkegaards own writing, these essays are at once conceptually rigorous and spiritually up-building." -- Merold Westphal, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Fordham University"This collection of nineteen essays by Steve Evans is a treasure trove of incisive analytic papers on topics ranging from Kierkegaard's approach to philosophy to an extended reformist reading that illuminates both Kierkegaard and Plantinga in addition to penetrating studies of Kierkegaards views of ethics, authority, and philosophical psychology. An absolutely necessary volume for Kierkegaard scholars, it will prove quite important for others in adjacent philosophic disciplines." -- Robert L Perkins, Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, at Stetson University & Editor, International Kierkegaard CommentaryTable of Contents Acknowledgments Preface A Note on Citations from Kierkegaard SIGLA PART ONE. Introduction 1 Kierkegaard as a Christian Thinker PART TWO. Kiekegaard the Philosopher 2 Realism and Antirealism in Kierkegaard's Concluding Unscientific Postscript 3 Kant and Kierkegaard on the Possibility of Metaphysics 4 The Role of Irony in Kierkegaard's Philosophical Fragments 5 Kierkegaard's View of Humor: Must Christians Always Be Solemn? 6 Misusing Religious Language: Something about Kierkegaard and The Myth of God Incarnate PART THREE. Kierkegaard on Faith, Reason, and Reformed Epistemology 7 Is Kierkegaard an Irrationalist? Reason, Paradox, and Faith 8 Apologetic Arguments in Philosophical Fragments 9 The Relevance of Historical Evidence for Christian Faith: A Critique of a Kierkegaardian View 10 Kierkegaard and Plantinga on Belief in God: Subjectivity as the Ground of Properly Basic Religious Beliefs 11 Externalist Epistemology, Subjectivity, and Christian Knowledge: Plantinga and Kierkegaard PART FOUR. Kierkegaard on Ethics and Authority 12 Faith as the Telos of Morality: A Reading of Fear and Trembling 13 A Kierkegaardian View of the Foundations of Morality 14 Kierkegaard on Religious Authority: The Problem of the Criterion PART FIVE. Kierkegaard on the Self: Philosophical Psychology 15 Who is the Other in The Sickness unto Death? God and Human Relations in the Constitution of the Self 16 Kierkegaard's View of the Unconscious 17 Does Kierkegaard Think Beliefs Can Be Directly Willed? 18 Where There's a Will There's a Way: Kierkegaard's Theory of Action PART SIX. Conclusion 19 Where Can Kierkegaard Take Us? Notes Bibliography Index
£23.96
