Philosophy of religion Books

Book SynopsisThis collection examines the topic of time in the life and works of Augustine of Hippo. Adopting a global perspective on time as a philosophical and theological problem, the volume includes reflections on the meaning of history, the mortality of human bodies, and the relationship between temporal experience and linguistic expression. As Augustine himself once observed, time is both familiar and surprisingly strange. Everyone’s days are structured by temporal rhythms and routines, from watching the clock to whiling away the hours at work. Few of us, however, take the time to sit down and figure out whether time is real or not, or how it is we are able to hold our past, present, and future thoughts together in a straight line so that we can recite a prayer or sing a song. Divided into five sections, the essays collected here highlight the ongoing relevance of Augustine’s work even in settings quite distinct from his own era and context. The first three sections, organized around the themes of interpretation, language, and gendered embodiment, engage directly with Augustine’s own writings, from the Confessions to the City of God and beyond. The final two sections, meanwhile, explore the afterlife of the Augustinian approach in conversation with medieval Islamic and Christian thinkers (like Avicenna and Aquinas), as well as a broad range of Buddhist figures (like Dharmakīrti and Vasubandhu). What binds all of these diverse chapters together is the underlying sense that, regardless of the century or the tradition in which we find ourselves, there is something about the puzzle of temporality that refuses to go away. Time, as Augustine knew, demands our attention. This was true for him in late ancient North Africa. It was also true for Buddhist thinkers in South and East Asia. And it remains just as true for humankind in the twenty-first century, as people around the globe continue to grapple with the reality of time and the challenges of living in a world that always seems to be to be speeding up rather than slowing down.Trade Review“In Augustine’s Confessions, the saint famously uncovers time—that most familiar experience—as a rich vein of inquiry. The chapters in this volume mine that vein, showing anew its depth and breadth, through engagement with an unusually broad group of thinkers and themes. Materialist, Buddhist, and Reformation texts refract Augustine’s thought in illuminating new directions, while conventional Augustinian themes like sin, grace, creation, and eschatology are productively reexamined. Above all, these chapters remind us that an investigation of time is, at bedrock, always an investigation of ourselves.” -- Erika Kidd, University of St. Thomas“Drawing on an array of disciplinary perspectives, Augustine and Time offers a wide-ranging, thought-provoking, and ambitious collection of essays that brings together historical and thematic approaches to examine Augustine's views on time, the Medieval reception history of his views, and possibilities for inter-religious dialogue.” -- Matthew Drever, University of Tulsa“This fine essay collection offers something rare. An international team of established and emerging scholars write from multiple perspectives, offer close readings of Augustine, fan out into reception history, and bring different disciplines and religious traditions into conversation. That breadth combines with the depth of focusing upon a single topic (time) while diving especially into one famous text (Book 11 of Confessions). The result is at once a dimensional and fine-grained take on Augustine’s thought. Augustine and Time is a suggestive, absorbing group of essays. “ -- Michael Cameron, University of PortlandTable of ContentsPart I: Interpreting Augustine On Time Chapter 1: Time, Eternity, and History in Augustine’s Early Works by Thomas ClemmonsChapter 2: Keeping Time in Mind: Saint Augustine’s Solution to a Perplexing Problem by Alexander R. EodiceChapter 3: Time After Augustine by James WetzelPart II: Time, Language, And Song Chapter 4: Living as Singing: Augustine’s Understanding of the Voice of Creatures in the Confessions by Makiko SatoChapter 5: Time, Mirror of the Soul by Cristiane Negreiros Abbud AyoubChapter 6: The Inner Word and the Outer Word: Time, Temporality, and Language in Augustine and Gadamer by Matthew W. KnottsPart III: Time, Embodiment, And GenderChapter 7: Augustinian Temporality and Resurrected Bodies by Paul UlishneyChapter 8: Love in the Time of Augustine: Rape, Suicide, and Resurrection in the City of God by Patricia GrosseChapter 9: Augustine and the Gendered Self in Time by Megan Loumagne UlishneyPart IV: Augustinian Temporality in The Middle AgesChapter 10: Augustine and Avicenna on the Puzzle of Time Without Time by Celia HatherlyChapter 11: The Timing of Creation: Aquinas’s Reception of Augustine by Daniel W. HouckChapter 12: Augustine’s Dilemma: Divine Eternity and the Reality of Temporal Passage by Brendan CaseChapter 13: Thomas Bradwardine: A Fourteenth-Century Augustinian View of Time by Sarah Hogarth RossiterChapter 14: Time After Time: Gregory of Rimini, Contingents Past and Future, and Augustinian Critique by Matthew VanderpoelPart V: Augustinian And Buddhist TemporalitiesChapter 15: Non-Presentism in Antiquity: South Asian Buddhist Perspectives by Sonam KachruChapter 16: Breaking the Stream of Consciousness: Momentariness and the Eternal Present by Davey K. TomlinsonChapter 17: Out of the Abyss: On Pedagogical Relationality and Time in the Confessions and the Lotus Sutra by Joy Brennan

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Book SynopsisThis collection examines the topic of time in the life and works of Augustine of Hippo. Adopting a global perspective on time as a philosophical and theological problem, the volume includes reflections on the meaning of history, the mortality of human bodies, and the relationship between temporal experience and linguistic expression. As Augustine himself once observed, time is both familiar and surprisingly strange. Everyone’s days are structured by temporal rhythms and routines, from watching the clock to whiling away the hours at work. Few of us, however, take the time to sit down and figure out whether time is real or not, or how it is we are able to hold our past, present, and future thoughts together in a straight line so that we can recite a prayer or sing a song. Divided into five sections, the essays collected here highlight the ongoing relevance of Augustine’s work even in settings quite distinct from his own era and context. The first three sections, organized around the themes of interpretation, language, and gendered embodiment, engage directly with Augustine’s own writings, from the Confessions to the City of God and beyond. The final two sections, meanwhile, explore the afterlife of the Augustinian approach in conversation with medieval Islamic and Christian thinkers (like Avicenna and Aquinas), as well as a broad range of Buddhist figures (like Dharmakīrti and Vasubandhu). What binds all of these diverse chapters together is the underlying sense that, regardless of the century or the tradition in which we find ourselves, there is something about the puzzle of temporality that refuses to go away. Time, as Augustine knew, demands our attention. This was true for him in late ancient North Africa. It was also true for Buddhist thinkers in South and East Asia. And it remains just as true for humankind in the twenty-first century, as people around the globe continue to grapple with the reality of time and the challenges of living in a world that always seems to be to be speeding up rather than slowing down.Trade Review“In Augustine’s Confessions, the saint famously uncovers time—that most familiar experience—as a rich vein of inquiry. The chapters in this volume mine that vein, showing anew its depth and breadth, through engagement with an unusually broad group of thinkers and themes. Materialist, Buddhist, and Reformation texts refract Augustine’s thought in illuminating new directions, while conventional Augustinian themes like sin, grace, creation, and eschatology are productively reexamined. Above all, these chapters remind us that an investigation of time is, at bedrock, always an investigation of ourselves.” -- Erika Kidd, University of St. Thomas“Drawing on an array of disciplinary perspectives, Augustine and Time offers a wide-ranging, thought-provoking, and ambitious collection of essays that brings together historical and thematic approaches to examine Augustine's views on time, the Medieval reception history of his views, and possibilities for inter-religious dialogue.” -- Matthew Drever, University of Tulsa“This fine essay collection offers something rare. An international team of established and emerging scholars write from multiple perspectives, offer close readings of Augustine, fan out into reception history, and bring different disciplines and religious traditions into conversation. That breadth combines with the depth of focusing upon a single topic (time) while diving especially into one famous text (Book 11 of Confessions). The result is at once a dimensional and fine-grained take on Augustine’s thought. Augustine and Time is a suggestive, absorbing group of essays. “ -- Michael Cameron, University of Portland“It is difficult to think of a more Augustinian problem than that of time and temporality. Whereas in previous generations Augustine was defined by his attention to scripture, selfhood and sinfulness, our current era draws us to his sense of temporality, which comprises all three themes but does so outside of any confessional order or pre-established philosophical hierarchy. The attempt to seize Augustinian temporality in all its many-faceted aspects is what makes this volume on time in Augustine both rich and indispensable.” -- Willemien Otten, University of Chicago"Augustine and Time is about Augustinian temporality - how we live in the face of our finite lifespan, one day or week or month or year after the next, from our hazily remembered infancy through childhood, youth, adulthood, and old age. Augustine's conception of our all-too-human `temporality' is explored not only in Augustine and in the world of his time, but brought into dialogue with other ages and other traditions in a way that shows its power and flexibility. It's a fascinating idea for a book, and it is carried out with flying colors. It will change the way you think about this enterprise of living that we all are engaged in." -- Peter King, University of Toronto“Augustine was famously perplexed by time: as the condition of our very existence, perhaps nothing is more familiar to us; as the encompassing horizon of our finitude, perhaps nothing in the created order is more difficult to think. Readers who share Augustine’s perplexity will find in this admirable collection not an easy answer to a difficult question (‘Who can explain time easily and briefly?’ asks Augustine), but rather a deepening of perplexity into wonder. Hannan, Paffenroth, and Doody have done us a great service by gathering here such varied meditations on the common theme of time. The result is a rich invitation to think time anew: from within and without Christianity; in Augustine’s historical context and in the received tradition; in light of more contemporary philosophical theories of time; in relationship to language and to melody; and as embodied both now and in the hereafter (the ‘time after time’). Augustine’s spiritual genius consists in his willingness to tarry with mystery until perplexity blossoms into praise. This volume is an invitation to journey into time with Augustine, and to find wonder redoubled along the way.” -- Paul Camacho, Villanova UniversityTable of ContentsPart I: Interpreting Augustine On Time Chapter 1: Time, Eternity, and History in Augustine’s Early Works by Thomas ClemmonsChapter 2: Keeping Time in Mind: Saint Augustine’s Solution to a Perplexing Problem by Alexander R. EodiceChapter 3: Time After Augustine by James WetzelPart II: Time, Language, And Song Chapter 4: Living as Singing: Augustine’s Understanding of the Voice of Creatures in the Confessions by Makiko SatoChapter 5: Time, Mirror of the Soul by Cristiane Negreiros Abbud AyoubChapter 6: The Inner Word and the Outer Word: Time, Temporality, and Language in Augustine and Gadamer by Matthew W. KnottsPart III: Time, Embodiment, And GenderChapter 7: Augustinian Temporality and Resurrected Bodies by Paul UlishneyChapter 8: Love in the Time of Augustine: Rape, Suicide, and Resurrection in the City of God by Patricia GrosseChapter 9: Augustine and the Gendered Self in Time by Megan Loumagne UlishneyPart IV: Augustinian Temporality in The Middle AgesChapter 10: Augustine and Avicenna on the Puzzle of Time Without Time by Celia HatherlyChapter 11: The Timing of Creation: Aquinas’s Reception of Augustine by Daniel W. HouckChapter 12: Augustine’s Dilemma: Divine Eternity and the Reality of Temporal Passage by Brendan CaseChapter 13: Thomas Bradwardine: A Fourteenth-Century Augustinian View of Time by Sarah Hogarth RossiterChapter 14: Time After Time: Gregory of Rimini, Contingents Past and Future, and Augustinian Critique by Matthew VanderpoelPart V: Augustinian And Buddhist TemporalitiesChapter 15: Non-Presentism in Antiquity: South Asian Buddhist Perspectives by Sonam KachruChapter 16: Breaking the Stream of Consciousness: Momentariness and the Eternal Present by Davey K. TomlinsonChapter 17: Out of the Abyss: On Pedagogical Relationality and Time in the Confessions and the Lotus Sutra by Joy Brennan

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Book SynopsisAmong many of his influences, James K. A. Smith set the agenda for Pentecostal philosophy with the publication of Thinking in Tongues, which addressed a wide range of philosophical loci through the lens of Pentecostal spirituality. In particular, he articulated an epistemology called narrative, affective knowledge, one that carefully utilizes the resources from continental philosophy and Pentecostalism. In Pentecostalism, Postmodernism, and Reformed Epistemology: James K. A. Smith and the Contours of a Postmodern Christian Epistemology, while accepting the broader descriptions of narrative, affective epistemology, Yoon Shin critically modifies and strengthens Smith’s epistemology through careful exposition and critique and with the aid of wide-ranging resources, such as moral psychology, philosophy of emotion, postliberalism, and Reformed epistemology. Through his exposition, Shin argues that Smith’s Pentecostal epistemology is not uniquely Pentecostal, but postliberal and postmodern. Against Smith’s insistence that to be a Christian postmodern is to be a relativist, Shin critiques Smith’s misunderstanding of postliberalism and its realist commitment and argues for a performative correspondence theory of truth. Moreover, he expands on Smith’s thin prescription for knowledge by enlisting the aid of Reformed epistemology. Through dialogue with Reformed epistemology, Shin identifies three areas for dialogue between postmodern and Reformed epistemology in service of developing a postmodern Christian epistemology. Trade Review“Yoon Shin’s engaging study stages a constructive conversation few may have thought possible, namely that between Reformed epistemology, postmodern philosophy, and Pentecostal theology. The result is a substantive and creative proposal—a ‘mashup epistemology’ as Shin styles it—that greatly enriches our thinking about religious knowledge and the possibilities available for Christian reflection upon the quality of our knowledge.” -- Philip G. Ziegler, University of Aberdeen"Combining the most stimulating debates of the last decade, Yoon Shin courageously ventures into the seemingly contradictory interests of Pentecostal, Evangelical, Reformed and postmodern epistemologies through the lens of one of their chief interlocutors, James K.A. Smith. Critical and constructive, combining philosophy, theology, hermeneutics, and cultural studies, this conversation is an advocate for a postmodern Christian epistemology grounded in the concrete embodiment of the human situation." -- Wolfgang Vondey, University of Birmingham"In this significant work, Yoon Shin brings James K.A. Smith’s postmodern epistemology into a much-need conversation with Reformed epistemology. The result is a magnificently lucid and engaging product that will mark a watershed moment in Pentecostalist scholarship. Pentecostalism, Postmodernism, and Reformed Epistemology: James K. A. Smith and the Contours of a Postmodern Christian Epistemology will be treasured by scholars for its rigorous argumentation, clarity, and depth of insight. A real tour de force! " -- Brian Lightbody, Brock UniversityTable of ContentsForewordAcknowledgementsIntroduction Part 1: Smith’s Pentecostal EpistemologyChapter 1: Pentecostal Spirituality and PostmodernismChapter 2: Pentecostal EpistemologyChapter 3: Pretheory, Theory, and Their Integrated Relationship Part 2: Smith’s Postmodern EpistemologyChapter 4: Postmodern Hermeneutic EpistemologyChapter 5: Smith the Relativist? Chapter 6: Against Narrative, Affective KnowledgePart 3: Reformed and Postmodern EpistemologyChapter 7: Plantinga’s Reformed Epistemology Chapter 8: Warranted Christian Belief Chapter 9: Reformed Epistemology, Postmodernism, and a Way ForwardConclusion: Contours of a Postmodern Christian EpistemologyGlossaryBibliographyIndexAbout the Author

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Book SynopsisIn Pentecostalism, Postmodernism, and Reformed Epistemology, Yoon Shin critically builds on James K. A. Smith’s postmodern Pentecostal epistemology with the aid of Reformed epistemology. It takes the reader through an interdisciplinary journey that exposits and illumines the relationship among Pentecostal spirituality, continental and analytic philosophy, postliberalism, moral psychology, and philosophy of emotion. This work clarifies misunderstandings of Smith, in Smith, and between continental and analytic epistemology, constructively and coherently synthesizing the sources through interdisciplinary analysis and thereby demonstrating the value of mashup philosophy. The resulting epistemology strengthens the mostly descriptive epistemology of Smith with the warrant criteria of Alvin Plantinga.Trade Review“Yoon Shin’s engaging study stages a constructive conversation few may have thought possible—namely, that among Reformed epistemology, postmodern philosophy, and Pentecostal theology. The result is a substantive and creative proposal—a ‘mashup epistemology,’ as Shin styles it—that greatly enriches our thinking about religious knowledge and the possibilities available for Christian reflection upon the quality of our knowledge.” -- Philip G. Ziegler, University of Aberdeen"Combining the most stimulating debates of the last decade, Yoon Shin courageously ventures into the seemingly contradictory interests of Pentecostal, Evangelical, Reformed, and postmodern epistemologies through the lens of one of their chief interlocutors, James K.A. Smith. Critical and constructive, combining philosophy, theology, hermeneutics, and cultural studies, this conversation advocates for a postmodern Christian epistemology grounded in the concrete embodiment of the human situation." -- Wolfgang Vondey, University of Birmingham"In this significant work, Yoon Shin brings James K.A. Smith’s postmodern epistemology into a much-needed conversation with Reformed epistemology. The result is a magnificently lucid and engaging product that will mark a watershed moment in Pentecostalist scholarship. Pentecostalism, Postmodernism, and Reformed Epistemology: James K. A. Smith and the Contours of a Postmodern Christian Epistemology will be treasured by scholars for its rigorous argumentation, clarity, and depth of insight. A real tour de force! " -- Brian Lightbody, Brock University"In conversation with the work of James K. A. Smith, Shin seeks to make good on showing how postmodern philosophy and Reformed epistemology can inform one another and contribute to the task of developing a postmodern Christian epistemology. This book is refreshingly astute in its discussion of the relevant issues, its interdisciplinary and comparative analysis, and its constructive proposal. Shin deserves our gratitude for paving the way toward a richer understanding of such a possibility!" -- Frederick Aquino, Graduate School of Theology, Abilene Christian UniversityTable of ContentsForewordAcknowledgementsIntroduction Part 1: Smith’s Pentecostal EpistemologyChapter 1: Pentecostal Spirituality and PostmodernismChapter 2: Pentecostal EpistemologyChapter 3: Pretheory, Theory, and Their Integrated Relationship Part 2: Smith’s Postmodern EpistemologyChapter 4: Postmodern Hermeneutic EpistemologyChapter 5: Smith the Relativist? Chapter 6: Against Narrative, Affective KnowledgePart 3: Reformed and Postmodern EpistemologyChapter 7: Plantinga’s Reformed Epistemology Chapter 8: Warranted Christian Belief Chapter 9: Reformed Epistemology, Postmodernism, and a Way ForwardConclusion: Contours of a Postmodern Christian EpistemologyGlossaryBibliographyIndexAbout the Author

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Book SynopsisRandy Ramal argues that philosophers have a hermeneutical responsibility to the intelligibility of everyday life. Furthermore, they need to go the hard way to fulfill it, which entails overcoming the temptation to turn philosophy into a normative discipline, while also appreciating the need to limit the philosopher’s engagement with the world to explicating the coherent sense that everyday life has, and to recovering that sense when life’s intelligibility is challenged by unwarranted skepticism. In On Philosophy, Intelligibility, and the Ordinary: Going the Bloody Hard Way, the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead is central to Ramal’s endeavor to demonstrate the need to separate the hermeneutical responsibility of philosophy from the normative aspects of responsibility. While showing the futility of labeling Whitehead as a purely disinterested philosopher who abandons the idea that ordinariness is relevant to good philosophical thinking, Ramal frames this discussion within a larger, in-depth engagement with a vast number of thinkers, philosophers, and literary figures whose works touch on the question of the ordinary. The latter include Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, the empiricists, Kierkegaard, Wittgenstein, J.L. Austin, Anthony Flew, the Ideal-Language philosophers, Jacques Derrida, Richard Rorty, Stanley Cavell, Hilary Putnam, Cora Diamond, Peter Singer, Michel de Certeau, Stanley Rosen, Richard Dawkins, J.M. Coetzee, and David Foster Wallace.Trade Review"This book is a very timely reminder that philosophers must avoid practicing philosophy as a normative discipline. Everyone can and should argue for what he or she considers to be right and true and important. But this should not be confused with philosophizing. The main responsibility of philosophy lies in questions of sense and intelligibility, as Ramal argues with Wittgenstein, Cavell and Phillips. It must be oriented to the ordinary, to the life-world in which we know from our common practice what we mean by our concepts. Whenever philosophers confuse their own rational constructions with the reality they seek to reconstruct, they commit the fallacy of logical inversion. Whitehead, Rorty, Rosen, and many others have fallen into this trap, as Ramal demonstrates in detail. His clear, wide-ranging, and well-argued book sharpens the eye for the blind alleys into which philosophy gets if it does not avoid this fallacy." -- Ingolf U. Dalferth, Claremont Graduate University"This is a courageous book in the sense that Ramal is arguing against the widespread view that philosophy’s task is largely (or exclusively) normative. By contrast, Ramal thinks that philosophy’s primary responsibility is to provide intelligibility. Relying primarily on Wittgenstein and Whitehead (but also on several other authors), Ramal thinks that philosophers should be primarily concerned with clarifying discourse, rather than with offering normative guidance. This thesis is explored with respect to a wide range of topics: ordinary language, experience, theism/atheism, the lives of nonhuman animals, etc. Whatever one’s own stance, one is enlightened by Ramal’s work in the effort to articulate the proper method of philosophy as a discipline. His fear is that by jumping prematurely or in the wrong way into normative concerns, philosophers might be forgoing one of their essential tasks." -- Daniel A. Dombrowski, Seattle UniversityTable of ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroduction Chapter 1: On Ordinariness and Philosophy’s Responsibility to IntelligibilityChapter 2: Speculating on being in the world alongside Plato and AristotleChapter 3: Courting Ordinary Language with the Ideal Language PhilosophersChapter 4: Negotiating Ordinary Experience with the EmpiricistsChapter 5: Rubbing Shoulders with Wittgenstein on Ordinary Realism Chapter 6: Inverting the Logic of Ordinary Atheism with Flew and the New AtheistsChapter 7: Animalizing Philosophy with Derrida and Coetzee Conclusion: Final ThoughtsBibliographyIndexAbout the Author

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Book SynopsisThe question of whether the existence of evil in the world is compatible with the existence of an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-good God has been debated for centuries. Many have addressed classical arguments from evil, and while recent scholarship in analytic philosophy of religion has produced newer formulations of the problem, most of these newer formulations rely on a conception of God that is not held by all theists. In Bringing Good Even Out of Evil: Thomism and the Problem of Evil, B. Kyle Keltz defends classical theism against contemporary problems of evil through the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas and his interpreters. Keltz discusses Aquinas’s thought on God, evil, and what kind of world God would make, then turns to contemporary problems of evil and shows how they miss the mark when it comes to classical theism. Some of the newer formulations that the book considers include James Sterba’s argument from the Pauline principle, J. L. Schellenberg’s divine hiddenness argument, Stephen Law’s evil-god challenge, and Nick Trakakis’s anti-theodicy.Trade ReviewKeltz offers his readers a sophisticated discussion of a long standing theological and philosophical problem. Unlike some who have discussed this problem, he is well aware of the significance that Aquinas has when trying to deal with it. And he puts this knowledge to very good effect in what he writes. The result is a fine introduction to the problem and to insights from Aquinas concerning it. -- Brian Davies, Fordham UniversityTable of ContentsIntroductionChapter One: Aquinas on God and EvilChapter Two: Aquinas and Natural EvilChapter Three: Aquinas and Moral EvilChapter Four: Logical Arguments from EvilChapter Five: Evidential Arguments from EvilChapter Six: Anti-TheodiciesConclusion

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Book SynopsisRecent scholarship has framed early Confucians as just war theorists with relatively permissive criteria for the just use of violence. Lead Them with Virtue: A Confucian Alternative to War makes the case that such interpretations conflict with what Mencius and Xunzi were trying to do. Kurtis Hagen argues that they both strove to prevent war by contrasting the situations of their day with idealized versions of the semi-mythic activities of sage-kings, which represent appropriate use of the military. These stories imply support for the offensive use of the military only when actual war—with its characteristic horrors—would not ensue. Following this logic, military interventions are just only in circumstances that do not actually occur. Confucians advocate, instead, a long-term strategy of ameliorating unjust circumstances by leveraging the credibility and influence that stems from consistently practicing genuinely benevolent governance. Passages that imply pacifistic readings of these texts are routinely dismissed by scholars as too naïve to be taken seriously. Hagen argues that the relatively pacifistic position implied by these passages is not in fact naïve, but is rather reasonable, and indeed should be supported, at least by contemporary Confucians. Trade Review“I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Moreover, I learned a great deal indeed from the reading. I have always enjoyed reading about Xunzi. I most highly recommend this excellent work.” -- John Berthrong, Boston University"Learning from early philosophers requires both getting the ancients right and applying their lessons astutely. In Lead Them With Virtue, Kurtis Hagen makes novel and powerful arguments on both counts. He shows that early Confucians were much less sanguine about 'just war' than has often been thought, and that we have much to learn from the 'Confucian solution' to peace and security. Over the long term, peace and prosperity come not from military strength but from benevolent governments held accountable by critical intellectuals." -- Stephen C. Angle, Wesleyan University"Lead them with Virtue presents a Confucian perspective on topics including just war, dirty hands, the use of the military, humanitarian intervention, and global leadership. Hagen unifies these themes by placing strategic moral leadership at the centre of a sustainable, long-term, Confucian vision." -- Karyn Lai, University of New South Wales"Through a thorough investigation of the Confucian views on warfare and the world order, this book has provided an original analysis and insightful discussion of the Confucian approach to political conflicts and their solutions, and argued for this approach to be a plausible alternative to various war and world order theories popular in the West, past and present. Academic by nature, the book nevertheless may well serve as a kind of handbook not only useful to those political leaders who hold the power to wage a war but also beneficial for the general public who are particularly concerned with justifications, procedures, and consequences of engaging war in an increasingly globalized world." -- Xinzhong Yao, King’s College London"In this provocative book, Kurtis Hagen challenges the dominant view among the students of Chinese philosophy that early Confucians such as Mencius and Xunzi supported humanitarian intervention. Highlighting the similarity between early Mohists and early Confucians regarding the use of violence, Hagen contends that it is a mistake to understand early Confucians as the advocates of humanitarian intervention who justified military intervention for good consequences as their central concern rather lay in winning the whole world by noncoercive means, virtue in particular. Hagen’s book is one of the first attempts to systematically investigate the Confucian idea of just war and its core contention is worth serious attention and engagement." -- Sungmoon Kim, City University of Hong KongTable of ContentsPreface Introduction Chapter 1: A Brief Overview of Confucianism Chapter 2: Western and Chinese Attitudes Regarding WarfareChapter 3: Anticipating Confucian Just War TheoryChapter 4: Mencius on War and Humanitarian Intervention Chapter 5: Xunzi on War and Humanitarian Intervention Chapter 6: Mencius and Xunzi on Tyranny and Humanitarian Intervention: A Response to Twiss and ChanChapter 7: From Human Nature to the Clash of Civilizations Chapter 8: Two Visions of Confucian World Order ConclusionBibliography

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Book SynopsisWhat is philosophy? What can philosophy offer us? What brings us to think philosophically? Arthur Schopenhauer’s writings offer fascinating answers to these questions that have largely been overlooked until now. In Schopenhauer and the Nature of Philosophy, Jonathan Head explores the surprisingly rich and compelling metaphilosophy that underlies Schopenhauer’s work and argues that it offers a vital key to unlocking many of the mysteries that surround his ideas. Schopenhauer understands philosophy as grounded in a deep wonder about life and the world that is universal to the human experience, as well as meeting a fundamental need for both explanation and consolation. This account of the nature of philosophy leads to further important discussions concerning the relationship between philosophy and religion, the value of mysticism, and the possibility of social progress. Through examining Schopenhauer’s account of how and why philosophy is done, this book sheds crucial new light on a thinker whose ideas continue to both provoke and inspire.Trade Review“This is a fine and absorbing study that brings to life the power of Arthur Schopenhauer’s thoughts on the value, scope, and limits of philosophy. The author’s clear style complements his daring effort to reveal intriguing aspects of the meta-philosophical concerns of this much neglected thinker. He artfully engages Schopenhauer’s writings in a philosophically rich and evocative way.” -- Bart Vandenabeele, Ghent University"Schopenhauer and the Nature of Philosophy breaks new ground with its dedicated study of Schopenhauer’s philosophy of philosophy. Jonathan Head elicits answers from Schopenhauer on questions concerning the motivations and methods for doing philosophy and the modes of its communication; in the process it throws light on almost every area of Schopenhauer’s own philosophy. The threads of previous, passing discussions of Schopenhauer’s metaphilosophy are gathered together here for the first time and subjected to a concentrated and thorough critical analysis. Through this a new and original interpretation is proposed and defended, which is sure to be an essential touchstone for any future discussions of Schopenhauer’s thoughts about the nature of philosophy itself." -- David Bather Woods, University of WarwickTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsNote on Abbreviations and ReferencingIntroduction1. The Need for Metaphysics2. Nature and Subjectivity3. Communicating Philosophy4. Seeking Better Consciousness5. Philosophy, Metaphor, and SpeculationConclusionBibliography

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Book SynopsisThe modern culture we live off and take for granted is an elevated, sophisticated one, containing a great variety of precious anthropological insights and strengths, with a surprising adaptability and openness to absorb, to clarify and to unite. However, in the present moment it comes across, in many cases, as a culture detached from the faith that gave life to it in the first place, and without which it may simply not survive. In fact it has become, of late, a fragile culture, a culture less and less capable of adapting and absorbing and uniting. This may be seen in the way many aspects of modern culture and public life have fallen into a pathology of rationalism, individualism, inequality, discord, ingratitude. This may be seen in our attempt to live in isolation from our fellow humans, unwilling to recognize the world we live in and the privileges we enjoy as God’s gifts. Faith Challenges Culture: A Reflection of the Dynamics of Modernity describes the process in two directions: how culture challenges faith to provide answers that have not been previously given, and how faith challenges culture not only by showing modern culture’s fragility and ambivalence, but also by posing new questions.Table of ContentsChapter 1. The TermsSection I. Faith Challenges CultureChapter 2. Faith Challenging Culture: Biblical Ethics and AnthropologyChapter 3. How Faith Challenges CultureSection II. Culture Challenges FaithChapter 4. How Culture Challenges Faith, I: The Meaning of RationalityChapter 5. How Culture Challenges Faith, II: Individualism and FreedomChapter 6. How Culture Challenges Faith, III: Equality and SolidarityChapter 7. How Culture Challenges Faith, IV: Conquest and GratitudeEpilogue: Integrating Conservatism and Progressive Liberalism

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Book SynopsisNationalism is a globally resurgent phenomenon. From Britain to India and the United States of America, we find nations vociferously reasserting their own sovereignty, ethnic composition, and intrinsic superiority. Thomas J. Millay demonstrates how Kierkegaard’s ascetic voice speaks directly to our present crisis.Kierkegaard and the New Nationalism: A Contemporary Reinterpretation of the Attack upon Christendom analyzes the late writings of Kierkegaard in light of this new relevance, for Kierkegaard’s attack upon Christendom is also an attack upon nationalism. For Kierkegaard, taking on nationalism is not simply a matter of undermining false identity constructions. Attacking nationalism is a matter of renunciation: it requires ascetic discipline, such that the selfish motives at the core of one’s identity construction are uprooted and replaced by a self-giving love marked by the willingness to suffer. Trade Review"Brazil. Hungary. Australia. Poland. Britain. France. Denmark. Russia. America. A heady mix of patriotism, racial resentment and aggrieved Christian identity has catapulted religious culture warriors to prominence in these and other countries over the past decade. These populist movements are not marginal. In their countries they enjoy access to the highest political places, hold many levers of power, and sit in the inner circles. Anyone who thinks that Christian nationalism is no longer a relevant ideology has been living under a rock. It is high time for a re-assessment of the one who saw this coming and had an idea of what to do about it. In his excellent book, Millay brings Kierkegaard to bear on the modern versions of an old problem, finding in Kierkegard’s attack upon 19th century Danish Christendom a potent critique of patriotic religion in modern America and beyond. Millay focuses on the Kierkegaardian themes of humility and suffering, using these to puncture the bubble of triumphant Christian nationalism obsessed with greatness. His argument is convincing, relevant, and true. Millay writes with wisdom and skill and has produced an exemplary book for any student of Christianity, nationalism, or Kierkegaard." -- Stephen Backhouse, author of Kierkegaard’s Critique of Christian Nationalism"With deep analysis and probing prose, Thomas Millay shows how Kierkegaard’s final 'attack on Christendom' is exactly what we need to live through a world of resurgent nationalism. While others ignore or qualify Kierkegaard’s most polemical and contestable writings, Millay shows us how to apply their power to renounce contemporary ideologies and resist the lure of religiously-sanctioned empires. This book will inform and inspire its readers to live out a countercultural, prophetic, and ascetic faith." -- Jason A. Mahn, Augustana CollegeTable of ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsChapter 1: The Attack: History & ContextChapter 2: Concepts: The Truth-Witness, New Testament Christianity, & DenmarkChapter 3: An Evolving MartyrdomChapter 4: Asceticism in the StreetsChapter 5: Kierkegaard’s Critique of Nationalism ReconsideredChapter 6: Some Perspectives on Destruction: Kierkegaard, Cone, and Third World TheologyConclusion: The Attack as a Work of Love: Kierkegaard and Contemporary Political TheologyBibliographyIndexAbout the Author

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Book SynopsisPerson and Value: Karol Wojtyła’s Personalistic and Normative Theory of Man, Morality, and Love discusses the central themes of Karol Wojtyła’s personalistic teaching in a concise yet comprehensive manner. Grzegorz Ignatik presents a philosophical understanding of the human person and human action that conforms with the phenomenological and metaphysical methodologies used by Wojtyła himself. This book pays special attention to Wojtyła’s phenomenological insights concerning the significance of value for human life. Ignatik’s reflections are based on his extensive research of original texts, published and yet unpublished, written by Karol Wojtyła in his original tongue, Polish. By returning to and rediscovering the original sources, Person and Value provides a fresh and profound engagement with the anthropological and ethical thought of the future Pope John Paul II. Written for all who wish to encounter one of the most illustrious minds of the twentieth century, this book will be an indispensable key to reading his works.Trade Review"The book provides a methodically structured access to human existence by systematically drawing on the personal perspective. Its foundation is the ethical-anthropological thinking of Karol Wojtyła (John Paul II), which can fully meet the scientific expectations of the present. This is a philosophy of transcendence, integration, and self-determination that is developed with a view to personal existence and divine being. The author plausibly shows that being a person means discovering the value of the other in the context of conscious and free action. Furthermore, he shows that the real world is shaped in the moral context of love and responsibility. The book achieves its goal with scientific simplicity, thoroughness, and originality. In the end, every reader can benefit in many ways." -- Kazimierz Rynkiewicz, Munich UniversityTable of ContentsForeword by Jarosław Kupczak, OPPrefaceIntroductionChapter 1: A Theory of the Person and CommunityChapter 2: A Theory of Morality and EthicsChapter 3: Love as the Fulfillment and TaskEpilogueBibliographyAppendix: Further ReadingAbout the Author

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Book SynopsisAntoine Chrysostome Quatremère de Quincy (1755-1849) was the most important Neoclassicalart historian in the generation after Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768). It is difficultnow to appreciate his importance, due in part to the lack of translations of his 21 publishedbooks: three were rendered into English in the 19th century, and one in the 21st. The MoralConsiderations has long been considered the most shattering polemic against public museumsever written. But I will show that Quatremère’s polemic was aimed, not against museums per se,but rather against the imperialist and secularist curatorial purposes of Parisian museums in theage of Revolution. His Neoclassical commitments maintained the centrality of religion, and ofincarnation, to any proper understanding of the place and purpose of the fine arts.Table of ContentsTranslator’s IntroductionThe Text of Quatremère de Quincy’s Moral Considerations on the Place and Purpose of Works of Art and Their Proper Use (1815)INTRODUCTION: MORAL CONSIDERATIONS On the Place and Purpose (Destination) of Works of ArtFIRST PART: On the Purpose and Place (Destination) of the Arts (Arts) and of Works of Art (ouvrages d’Art), Considered in Terms of Their Influence on the Talent of Artists and the Good Taste (Goût) of Amateurs.SECOND PART:On the Place and Purpose (Destination) of Works of Art (Ouvrages d’Art), Considered as an Influence on the Effect of These Artworks (Ouvrages) and the Impressions One Receives From ThemAPPENDIX ONE: Translation of the Preface to Quatremère de Quincy Lettres sur l’Enlèvement des Ouvrages de l’art antique à Athènes et à Rome, Écrites les unes au Célébres Canova les autres au Général Miranda (Paris: Adrien le Clere et C.ie, Quai des Augustins, No. 35, 1836), Avant Propos, v-xvjAPPENDIX TWO: The Major Published Works of Quatremère de Quincy, in Chronological OrderAPPENDIX THREE: Works by Quatremère de Quincy Translated into English, in Chronological Order

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Book SynopsisDietrich Bonhoeffer was the intellectual progeny of the competing liberal and dialectical theological camps of his time. Yet he found both camps incapable of properly accounting for Christ’s relation to time and history, which both grounds their conflict and generates further theological problems, both theoretical and practical. In this book Nik Byle argues that Bonhoeffer was able to mine Martin Heidegger’s Being and Time for material theologically useful for moving beyond this impasse.Bonhoeffer sifts through Heidegger’s analysis of human existence and finds a number of moves and concepts useful to theology. These include Heidegger’s emphasis on anthropology over epistemology, his position that one must begin with concrete existence, and that human existence is fundamentally temporal. Bonhoeffer must, however, reject other hallmark concepts, such as authenticity and Heidegger’s entire anthropocentric method, that would threaten the legitimate theological use of Heidegger.Making the appropriate theological alterations, Bonhoeffer applies the useful elements from Heidegger to his Christocentric theology. Essentially, Christ and the church become fundamentally temporal and historical in the same way that human existence is for Heidegger. This sets a new foundation for Bonhoeffer’s Christology with concomitant effects in his ecclesiology, sacramentalism, theological anthropology, and epistemology.Table of Contents1. Navigating Oppositions: Act and Being2. Cor Curvum in se: Philosophical Epistemology3. Heidegger’s Dasein: His Anthropological Success4. Authenticity: Heidegger’s Sin5. Divine Temporality: Christ as Ur-Dasein6. Heidegger in Later Bonhoeffer

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Book SynopsisReading Religious Ritual with Ricoeur: Between Fragility and Hope creates a dialogue between Ricœur’s hermeneutic philosophy and the interpretation of human ritual practices. In the first part of the book, Christina M. Gschwandtner shows that Ricœur’s account of religion would be deepened if it were to take into account not only the biblical texts but also forms of liturgical expression. She challenges Ricœur’s early reading of the symbol and second naïveté, extends his interpretation of biblical texts and faith to consider religious actions more fully, and suggests that ritual can enhance human capacities. The second part of the book employs Ricœur’s hermeneutics to shed light on the analysis of liturgy, demonstrating that his accounts of truth, of the world of the text, of religious language, of the imagination, and of the formation of identity are all eminently applicable to liturgical experience. Reading Religious Ritual with Ricoeur argues that one of the most significant themes in Ricœur’s work—the tension between fragility and hope—is especially helpful for understanding what liturgy does and how it functions. Seeing how liturgy and ritual configure fragility and hope also enriches Ricœur’s account of the role and function of religion in human experience.Table of ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsAbbreviations of Frequently Cited WorksPart I: Reading Ricoeur toward RitualChapter 1: Symbolism, Myth, and the Move to Second Naïveté Chapter 2: Scripture, Narrative, and the Move to ActionChapter 3: Ethics, Justice, and the Move to WisdomInterlude:Liturgy and HermeneuticsPart II: Reading Ritual with RicoeurChapter 4: Liturgical Truth: Fidelity, Attestation, ManifestationChapter 5: Liturgical Meaning: Prefiguration, Configuration, RefigurationChapter 6: Liturgical Language: Symbolism, Polyphony, DialogueChapter 7: Liturgical Imagination: Memory, Creativity, TraditionChapter 8: Liturgical Identity: Confession, Conversion, CommunityConclusionBibliography

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Book SynopsisThis book explores the way in which the study and practice of love creates a common ground for different faiths and different traditions within the same faith. For the contributors, “common ground” in this context is not a minimal core of belief or a lowest common denominator of faith, but a space or area in which to live together, consider together the meaning of the love to which various faiths witness, and work together to enable human flourishing. Such a space, the contributors believe, is possible because it is the place of encounter with the divine. This book is the fruit of a Project for the Study of Love in Religion which aims to create this space in which different traditions of love converge, from Islam, Judaism, and the Christianity of both East and West. Tools employed by the contributors in exploring this space of love include exegesis of ancient texts, theology, accounts of mystical experience, philosophy, and evolutionary science of the human. Insights about human and divine love that emerge include its nature as a form of knowing, its sacrificial and erotic dimensions, its inclination towards beauty, its making of community and its importance for a just political and economic life.Table of Contents1. God is Love, but is Love God? Towards a Theology of Love as KnowledgePaul S. FiddesLove in Islam2. Love in the Holy Qur’anHRH Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal of Jordan3. The Journey of Love and the Challenges of the “Self”: Rūmī’s View in Islamic Context. Leyla Tajer4. Bridal Symbolism, Eroticization of Divine Love and Friendship Among Medieval Female Mystics in Islam and ChristianityMinlib DallhLove in Judaism5. Judaism’s Commandment to Love: “A Well-Tempered Banality” or the Messianic Trumpet’s Blast? Melissa Raphael6. Harmony of Mind and Body: Theories of Love in Rabbinic and Mystical Literature Naftali Rothenberg7. Tensions within the Study of Love in Religion: Reflections Arising from Conversation between Jewish and Christian Scholars Eleanor McLaughlinLove in Christianity8. Transfiguring Love in Byzantine Theology: The System of St. Maximus the ConfessorSmilen Markov9. “Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth”: Erotic Love in the Western Christian Mystical TraditionLouise Nelstrop10. Sacrifice and the Self: A Christian Mystery of LoveJulia T. MeszarosCommon Philosophical Traditions about Love11. Love and the Limits of Platonic DesireFiona Ellis12. The Universal and the Individual: Aristotle on Substance and Friendship-Love (Philia)Mircea Dumitru The Study of Love in Religion13. Theological Reflections on “Christian” and “Human” LoveWerner G. Jeanrond14. Love as Belonging: Towards an Interdisciplinary Understanding of the HumanOliver Davies15. The Potentialities of Love in Social, Political and Economic Contexts Paul Weller

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Book SynopsisIn the first century, the Jewish Jesus, his followers, and the Pythagorean Apollonius journeyed widely, each to spread their good news. Spectral Lives by Luke and Philostratus: Journeying of Holy Men studies their biographers, Luke and Philostratus, and how they felt ethically compelled to tell their stories of good news to help their world. Post Enlightenment developments in historiography have expanded understanding of ancient texts with a “third dimension,” a transhuman habitat evident in ancient texts. In this book, Robert Lee Williams investigates how affect theory has sensitized interpreters to inner awareness of humans to their world, both beneficial and harmful, recorded in emotional responses. Survey of biographers from 500 BCE to 300 CE shows Luke and Philostratus particularly attuned to the journeying impelled by the deities and their spectral agents, forces active in their world ethically for good. Journeying from ghostly influences proves to be both more evident in texts than noticed since the Enlightenment and more indispensable for spreading the good and the right to our world, ethically and equitably. Table of ContentsList of MapsPrefaceAbbreviationsIntroductionChapter 1: Biographical Writings: 500 BCE to 300 CEPart I First Century Biographies: Jewish and ChristianChapter 2: Philo: Ancient Jewish LivesChapter 3: Luke: The GospelChapter 4: Luke: The Acts of the ApostlesPart II: Third Century Biographies: PythagoreanChapter 5: Philostratus: The Life of Apollonius of TyanaChapter 6: Iamblichus: On the Pythagorean Way of LifeConclusionBibliography

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Book SynopsisApplying Jewish Ethics: Beyond the Rabbinic Tradition is a groundbreaking collection that introduces the reader to applied ethics and examines various social issues from contemporary and largely under-represented, Jewish ethical perspectives. For thousands of years, a rich and complex system of Jewish ethics has provided guidance about which values we should uphold and utilize to confront concrete problems, create a healthy social fabric, and inspire meaningful lives. Despite its longevity and richness, many Judaic and secular scholars have misconstrued this ethical tradition as a strictly religious and biblically based system that primarily applies to observant Jews, rather than viewing it as an ethical system that can provide unique and helpful insights to anyone, religious or not. This pioneering collection offers a deep, broad, and inclusive understanding of Jewish ethical ideas that challenges these misconceptions. The chapters explain and apply these ethical ideas to contemporary issues connected to racial justice, immigration, gender justice, queer identity, and economic and environmental justice in ways that illustrate their relevance for Jews and non-Jews alike.Trade ReviewApplying Jewish Ethics: Beyond the Rabbinic Tradition offers readers a long-overdue interdisciplinary interpretation of Jewish ethics accompanied by a clear account of how Jewish moral concepts can expand our basic understandings of todays’ most thorny social problems. Wolf and Thompson make a clear and concise case for why applied ethics needs Jewish ethics. Their carefully curated anthology counters misconceptions about Jewish ethics with accessible explanations of basic Jewish moral principles. Contributors to the volume illustrate the normative power of these principles through a series of engagements with questions of environment justice, immigration, gender justice, queer identities, and more. Anyone curious about Jewish applied ethics should start with this book! -- Alison Bailey, Illinois State UniversityTable of ContentsPart I: What is Jewish Ethics?Chapter 1: An Overview of Secular Ethics and Applied EthicsAllison B. WolfChapter 2: What is Jewish Ethics?Jennifer A. ThompsonPart II: Applying Jewish EthicsA Jewish Social FabricChapter 3: Jewish Perspectives on Charity: A Philosophy for Hopeless TimesLeah KalmansonChapter 4: Beyond the Binary of Silence and Speech: What Jewish Liturgy and Spirals Reveal about the Limits and Potentials of Spiritual Caregiving for Survivors of Sexual ViolenceLena ScloveChapter 5: A Social Fabric of Interdependence: The Ethics of Care Work Jennifer A. ThompsonPart III: Being and BelongingChapter 6: Not in My Name: Jewishness, Womanhood, and the Ethics of Identification Naomi SchemanChapter 7: Failed Messiah: H. Leivick’s Der Goylem and the Ethics of Action Melissa WeiningerPart IV: Enacting JusticeChapter 8: Hans Jonas’ Ethics of Responsibility in an Age of Pervasive Technology Andrea LehnerChapter 9: Views from Far and Near: Jewish Memory and Culture in the Aftermath of Violence in ArgentinaNatasha ZaretskyChapter 10: A Judaic Approach to Immigration (In)Justice in the Americas. Allison B. Wolf

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Book SynopsisSpirituality for the Independent Thinker is a tough-minded but inspirational guide to the ways in which science, philosophy, and everyday experience converge into spiritual questions. It takes one of the greatest of all possible questions—why does anything exist instead of nothing—and draws from it a wide-awake spirituality that does not require meditation and does not lead to any bossy rules. Trade Review“A remarkable, beautiful, learned, and personal book that bears reading and re-reading. It starts with the question of why anything exists, and then explores the power of living in the ’now'." —Paul R. Fleischman, author of Wonder: When and Why the World Appears Radiant, Karma and Chaos, and other books “The fashionable dualism of ‘magical thinking vs. rational thinking’ by which faith and reason are increasingly defined today has endured centuries of careful critique by theologians, philosophers of religion, and even philosophers of science. As an historian, Richard Striner offers us a wonderfully different and uniquely compelling confutation of this dualism.” — Michael Epperson, Founding director of the Consortium for Philosophy and the Natural Sciences and the History and Philosophy of Science Program at California State University, Sacramento, US "Like his political hero Abraham Lincoln, Striner values independent thinking. This highly readable text is ideal for courses in philosophy."— William D. Pederson, American Studies Endowed Chair, LSU Shreveport, US “While admitting the benefits that hundreds of millions of people take from their religious belief and practice, Striner deftly points out the serious drift away from the logical shore that many must take in order to maintain their beliefs. In opposition to this, Striner proposes a ‘tough-minded’ spirituality that avoids the trap of wishful thinking.” —Douglas E. Cowan, Professor of Religious Studies and Social Development Studies, Renison University College, CanadaTable of ContentsPreface; 1. Toward a Spirituality of Independent Thinking; 2. Metaphysics, Physics, and the Spirituality of Now; 3. Why Is the World the Way It Seems?; 4. Freedom, Spirituality, and Struggle; 5. Theology and Worship; 6. The Misuse of Spirituality; 7. Paradigms of God; 8. Mysticism; 9. A Path of One’s Own; 10. Ontology and Mind; Epilogue; Appendix A: The Reality on Now as an Ontological Condition; Appendix B: The Ontological Complexities of Now: A Quantum Model; Notes; Index.

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Book SynopsisThis is an accessible response to the contemporary anti-God arguments of the 'new atheists' (Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, Hitchens, Grayling, etc). Atheism has become militant in the past few years, with its own popular mass media evangelists such as Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett. In this readable book, Christian philosopher Peter S. Williams considers the arguments of the 'new atheists' and finds them wanting. Williams explains the history of atheism and responds to the claims that: 'belief in God causes more harm than good'; 'religion is about blind faith and science is the only way to know things'; 'science can explain religion away'; 'there is not enough evidence for God'; 'the arguments for God's existence do not work'. Williams argues that belief in God is more intellectually plausible than atheism.

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Book Synopsis'Dostoevsky and the Dynamics of Religious Experience' deals with the religious dimension of the novelist’s life and fiction. The book is structured through six clearly defined and self-reliant essays that take into account past and current criticism and offers a close textual analysis on Dostoevsky's works, including 'The Double', 'Notes from Underground', 'Crime and Punishment', 'The Idiot', 'The Devils' and an in-depth study of 'The Brothers Karamazov'.Table of ContentsAuthor's Preface; ESSAY I: Dostoevsky's Journey of Religious Discovery: A Biographical Introduction; ESSAY II: An Introduction to Current Debate; ESSAY III: Remodelling Religious Consciousness in Dostoevsky's Fiction: The Death and Resurrection of Orthodoxy; ESSAY IV: Dostoevsky's Deconstructive Anxiety; ESSAY V: Religious Polemic in Narrative Form: The Brothers Karamazov; ESSAY VI: Conclusion; Endnotes; Select Bibliography; Index

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Book Synopsis'Dostoevsky and the Dynamics of Religious Experience' deals with the religious dimension of the novelist’s life and fiction. The book is structured through six clearly defined and self-reliant essays that take into account past and current criticism and offers a close textual analysis on Dostoevsky's works, including 'The Double', 'Notes from Underground', 'Crime and Punishment', 'The Idiot', 'The Devils' and an in-depth study of 'The Brothers Karamazov'.Table of ContentsAuthor's Preface; ESSAY I: Dostoevsky's Journey of Religious Discovery: A Biographical Introduction; ESSAY II: An Introduction to Current Debate; ESSAY III: Remodelling Religious Consciousness in Dostoevsky's Fiction: The Death and Resurrection of Orthodoxy; ESSAY IV: Dostoevsky's Deconstructive Anxiety; ESSAY V: Religious Polemic in Narrative Form: The Brothers Karamazov; ESSAY VI: Conclusion; Endnotes; Select Bibliography; Index

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