Religious issues and debates Books

Book SynopsisThe Bible is the most influential book in Western history. As the foundational text of Judaism and Christianity, the Bible has been interpreted and reinterpreted over millennia, utilized to promote a seemingly endless run of theological and political positions. Adherents and detractors alike point to different passages throughout to justify wildly disparate behaviors and beliefs. Translated and retranslated, these texts lead both to unity and intense conflict. Influential books on any topic are typically called bibles. What is the Bible? As a text considered sacred by some, its stories and language appear throughout the fine arts and popular culture, from Shakespeare to Saturday Night Live. In Michael Coogan''s eagerly awaited addition to Oxford''s What Everyone Needs to Know series, conflicts and controversies surrounding the world''s bestselling book are addressed in a straightforward Q&A format. This book provides an unbiased look at biblical authority and authorship, the Bible''s influence in Western culture, the disputes over meaning and interpretation, and the state of biblical scholarship today. Brimming with information for the student and the expert alike, The Bible: What Everyone Needs to Know is a dependable introduction to a most contentious holy book.Trade ReviewWill be useful for those with Protestant Christian theological interests. * Meredith J. C. Warren, Theological Journal Modern Believing *very well done, and the book will serve its intended readership well. * KEITH BEECH-GRÜNEBERG, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament *Admiration and gratitude should be equally widespread for Coogan's ability to be at once clear, concise, and convincing. Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers. * L. J. Greenspoon, Creighton University, CHOICE *Table of Contents1. What is the Bible? 2. Why are Bibles different? 3. What is in the Bible? 4. Who wrote the Bible? 5. How can the Bible be studied? 6. Is the Bible true? 7. How has the Bible influenced Western culture? 8. What is not in the Bible? 9. Why is the Bible such an important book? Timeline of principal biblical events and characters Index

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Book SynopsisMartyrdom is not only a sharply contested term and act, but it has a long history of provoking controversy. One person''s ''martyr'' is another''s ''terrorist'', and one person''s ''martyrdom operation'' is another''s ''suicide bombing''. Suicide attacks have made recurring questions about martyrdom more pertinent to current discussions. What is martyrdom? Why are some people drawn towards giving up their lives as martyrs? What place does religion play in inciting and creating martyrs? How are martyrs made? Why are some martyrs and martyrdoms remembered more than others? How helpful is the distinction between active and passive martyrdoms? In order both to answer such questions and to understand the contemporary debates about martyrdom, it is helpful to consider its diverse roots. In this Very Short Introduction, Jolyon Mitchell provides a historical analysis to shed light on how the concept and practice of martyrdom has evolved, as well as the different ways in which it is used today. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Table of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. Contesting martyrdom ; 2. Thinking martyrdom ; 3. Remembering martyrdom ; 4. Romanticising martyrdom ; 5. Touching martyrdom ; 6. Reforming martyrdom ; 7. Politicizing martyrdom ; 8. Conclusion: The end of martyrdom

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Book SynopsisThe Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Religion draws on the expertise of an international team of scholars providing both an entry point into the sociological study and understanding of religion and an in-depth survey into its changing forms and content in the contemporary world. The role and impact of religion and spirituality on the politics, culture, education and health in the modern world is rigorously discussed and debated. The study of the sociology of religion forges interdisciplinary links to explore aspects of continuity and change in the contemporary interface between society and religion. Using a combination of theoretical, methodological and content-led approaches, the fifty-seven contributors collectively emphasise the complex relationships between religion and aspects of life from scientific research to law, ecology to art, music to cognitive science, crime to institutional health care and more. The developing character of religion, irreligion and atheism and the impacTrade ReviewThis handsome book... is particularly welcome and should find a place in every well-stocked library, both academic and other... I particulary like the mix of experienced and younger scholoars who have been brought together in this volume and applaud the successful attempt to escape from a study of religion informed by Western, primarily Christian, notions of religion. A further question follows from this. Seriously confronting the realities of religion in the twenty-first century makes new demands on social science, which itself emerged from a similar (i.e., Western) context. To what extent, then, can these demands be met within the parameters of the sociology of religion as we know this? Peter Clarke's meticulously edited volume not only underlines the question, but indicates a way forward. He is to be warmly congratulated. * Grace Davie, Theology *The contributors of these chapters have been chosen from an impressive pool of top international academics in the field. Not only has the editor done a great job in finding leading academics to write on the most topical issues, but also all the contributors have written a very informative piece, using the most recent data and theories. All the chapters are a delight to read...This is an impressive volume that will delight the student as much as the erudite in the field. All the academic libraries should order this volume as it will soon become an essential reference to any subject in the sociology of religion. It is a must for anyone who calls himself/herself a sociologist of religion to have a copy of this book on his/her bookshels. * Adam Possamai, Australian Religion Studies Review *Table of ContentsI: THEORY: CLASSICAL, MODERN AND POSTMODERN; I: METHOD; III: RELIGION AND RELATED SPHERES: MORALITY, SCIENCE, IRRELIGION, ART AND SEXUALITY; IV: RELIGION AND THE STATE, THE NATION, THE LAW; V: GLOBALISATION AND ITS RELIGIOUS EFFECTS; VI: STANDARD OR MAINSTREAM RELIGION; VII: THE REPRODUCTION AND TRANSMISSION OF RELIGION; VIII: NEW RELIGION, NEW SPIRITUALITY AND IMPLICIT RELIGION; XI: ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES; X: TEACHING THE SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION

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Book SynopsisIn recent decades, reception history has become an increasingly important and controversial topic of discussion in biblical studies. Rather than attempting to recover the original meaning of biblical texts, reception history focuses on exploring the history of interpretation. In doing so it locates the dominant historical-critical scholarly paradigm within the history of interpretation, rather than over and above it. At the same time, the breadth of material and hermeneutical issues that reception history engages with questions any narrow understanding of the history of the Bible and its effects on faith communities.The challenge that reception history faces is to explore tradition without either reducing its meaning to what faith communities think is important, or merely offering anthologies of interesting historical interpretations. This major new handbook addresses these matters by presenting reception history as an enterprise (not a method) that questions and understands tradition Trade Reviewan important, valuable contribution to its subject * Eric Ziolkowski, Relegere: Studies in Religion and Reception *a rich collection of different and often very valuable materials on the reception history of the Bible. Among the articles some are real treasures * Ulrich Luz, Journal of Theological Studies *This volume is most certainly timely and highly pertinent to recent developments within biblical studies ... a welcome addition * R. I. Kueh, Journal of Ecclesiastical History *Table of ContentsPART ONE; PART TWO; HERMENEUTICAL AND HISTORICAL ISSUES; HEBREW BIBLE; NEW TESTAMENT

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Book SynopsisThe Theology of Jonathan Edwards is the first survey of the religious thought of America''s theologian--Jonathan Edwards--that draws on all of his writings, now available in a 73-volume online Yale critical edition. In 48 chapters, McClymond and McDermott, two of the world''s leading Edwards scholars, treat topics in Edwards''s thought that have rarely been analyzed in depth, and never in coordination with a close analysis of the rest of his theology. Such topics include the implications of his doctrine of the Trinity for the divide between Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy, his enduring appeal among both conservative and liberal Protestants, his ecclesial and sacramental theologies, his conflicted relationship with the history of Calvinism, the cultural-historical and comparative-religious turn he made toward the end of his career (as the leading colonial thinker on the topic of world religions), the appeals to his ideas in nineteenth- and twentieth-century debates over Methodist, HolinTrade ReviewThis whopping book is without doubt the Big Mac of Jonathan Edwards studies. ... Writing clearly and accessibly, but also authoritatively and yet modestly, they compare their product to the sections of a symphony orchestra, or to a series of viewing stations of both the explored and yet to-be-explored interior of Edwards's writings. * Paul Helm, Journal of Ecclesiastical History *very impressive book on the theology of one of the greatest minds ever given to God's church. Those with an interest in Edwards certainly must get a copy. Ministers or serious-minded Christians would also be well served by having this excellent volume. * William M. Schweitzer, Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology *Table of ContentsPart One: Introduction: Historical, Cultural, and Social Contexts ; Chapter One: Overture to a Symphony ; Chapter Two: Jonathan Edwards: A Theological Life ; Chapter Three: Edwards's Intellectual Context ; Chapter Four: Edwards's Spirituality ; Chapter Five: The Question of Development: Did Edwards Change? ; Part Two: Topics in Edwards's Theology ; Section One: Methods and Strategies ; Chapter Six: Beauty and Aesthetics ; Chapter Seven: Metaphysics ; Chapter Eight: Typology: Scripture, Nature, and All of Reality ; Chapter Nine: Revelation: Scripture, Tradition, and Reason ; Chapter Ten: Apologetics ; Chapter Eleven: Biblical Exegesis ; Chapter Twelve: The Concept of a History of Redemption ; Section Two: The Triune God, the Angels, and Heaven ; Chapter Thirteen: God as Trinity: Father, Son, and Spirit ; Chapter Fourteen: The End of God in Creation ; Chapter Fifteen: Providence and History ; Chapter Sixteen: The Person and Work of Jesus Christ ; Chapter Seventeen: The Role of the Holy Spirit ; Chapter Eighteen: The Angels in the Plan of Salvation ; Chapter Nineteen: Heaven is a World of Love ; Section Three: Theological Anthropology and Divine Grace ; Chapter Twenty: The Affections and the Human Person ; Chapter Twenty-one: Edward's Calvinism and Theology of the Covenants ; Chapter Twenty-two: Free Will and Original Sin ; Chapter Twenty-three: Salvation, Grace, and Faith: An Overview ; Chapter Twenty-four: Conversion: A Divine and Supernatural Light ; Chapter Twenty-five: Justification and Sanctification ; Chapter Twenty-six: The Theme of Divinization ; Chapter Twenty-seven: The Theology of Revivals ; Section Four: Church, Ethics, Eschatology, and Society ; Chapter Twenty-eight: The Church ; Chapter Twenty-nine: Edwards On (and In) the Ministry ; Chapter Thirty: The Sacraments: Baptism and the Lord's Supper ; Chapter Thirty-one: The Voice of the Great God: A Theology of Preaching ; Chapter Thirty-two: Public Theology, Society, and America ; Chapter Thirty-three: True Virtue, Christian Love, and Ethical Theory ; Chapter Thirty-four: Edwards On (and In) Missions ; Chapter Thirty-five: Eschatology ; Chapter Thirty-six: Christianity and Other Religions ; Part Three: Legacies and Affinities: Edwards's Disciples and Interpreters ; Chapter Thirty-seven: Selective Readings: Edwards and the New Divinity ; Chapter Thirty-eight: Mixed Reactions: Princeton and Andover Seminaries, and Nineteenth-Century American Culture ; Chapter Thirty-nine: New Beginnings: The Twentieth Century Recovery of Edwards's Theology ; Chapter Forty: Interpretations, I: Edwards and Modern Philosophy ; Chapter Forty-one: Interpretations, II: Edwards and the Reformed Tradition ; Chapter Forty-two: Interpretations, III: Edwards and the Revival Tradition ; Chapter Forty-three: Interpretations, IV: Edwards and the Catholic and Orthodox Traditions ; Chapter Forty-four: Interpretations, V: Edwards and Contemporary Theology ; Chapter Forty-five: Conclusion: Edwards as a Theological Bridge ; Index

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Book SynopsisMark Amstutz offers a groundbreaking exploration of the rise, evolution, and crucial impact of Evangelicals on American foreign affairs. In the nineteenth century, Protestant missionaries spearheaded global engagement by serving throughout the world. They gained fluency in foreign languages, developed knowledge about distant societies, and increased cross-cultural awareness. They also played a vital role in advancing human dignity by teaching and modeling values, building schools and clinics, and creating institutions that nurtured civil society. In view of their important role in global affairs, Amstutz argues, Evangelicals can be regarded as America''s first internationalists. When modernists gained control of Protestant denominations at the turn of the twentieth century, traditional Protestants responded by creating a Fundamentalist movement that gave precedence to spiritual life but neglected social and political concerns. Four decades later, orthodox believers sought to restore thTrade ReviewAn excellent overview of the often surprising and unexpected multidimensional paths of evangelica perspectives on US foreign Policy. * M. S. Hill, Choice, *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; PART I ; 1. Christianity and Foreign Policy ; 2. The Nature and Rise of Evangelicalism ; 3. The Genesis of Evangelical Global Engagement: The Missionary Movement ; 4. The Political Ethics of Evangelicals ; PART II ; 5. Evangelicals and Global Poverty ; 6. Evangelicals and U.S. Foreign Policy Towards Israel ; 7. The Rise of Evangelical Foreign Policy Advocacy ; 8. Shortcomings of Evangelical Foreign Policy Advocacy ; 9. Towards a More Effective Evangelical Global Engagement ; Notes ; Index

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Book SynopsisControversial megachurch pastor Mark Driscoll proclaimed from a conference stage in 2013, I know who made the environment and he's coming back and going to burn it all up. So yes, I drive an SUV. The comment, which Driscoll later explained away as a joke, highlights what has been a long history of religious anti-environmentalism. Given how firmly entrenched this sentiment has been, surprising inroads have been made by a new movement with few financial resources, which is deeply committed to promoting green religious traditions and creating a new environmental ethic. To Care for Creation chronicles this movement and explains how it has emerged despite institutional and cultural barriers, as well as the hurdles posed by logic and practices that set religious environmental organizations apart from the secular movement. Ellingson takes a deep dive into the ways entrepreneurial activists tap into and improvise on a variety of theological, ethical, and symbolic traditions in order to issue

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Book SynopsisOffers an account of religion and society in nineteenth-century America. Exploring the eruptions of religion in New York's penny presses, the budding fields of anthropology and phrenology, and Moby-Dick, this book challenges the strict separation between the religious and the secular that remains integral to discussions about religion.Trade Review"Imaginative and rewarding, this is an exemplary instance of interdisciplinary historical inquiry. A brilliant, groundbreaking book." (John Corrigan, Florida State University)"

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Book SynopsisThe Holy Spirit has become an object of greater attention in Trinitarian theology, and indeed in the broader life of the Church, since the rise of Pentecostalism at the beginning of the twentieth century. Different understandings of the Holy Spirit have had different impacts on worship; here, Elizabeth Welch examines four surprising overlaps in the thought of two radically different traditions of the church about the relationship between the Holy Spirit and worship. These traditions are represented by John Owen, from seventeenth-century England, and John Zizioulas, from contemporary Greece. Welch explores in turn the common themes of the personal and relational nature of the triune God, the immediacy of the encounter with God through the Holy Spirit in worship, the role of the Holy Spirit in leading people into truth, and the transformative nature of worship that draws people into sharing God''s purpose for the world. In each, the insights of Owen and Zizioulas shed new light on the onTrade ReviewThis timely and scholarly book deepens ecumenical thinking about the connection between the Holy Spirit and the church's worship. Elizabeth Welch reveals unexpected convergences between John Owen (Reformed) and John Zizioulas (Orthodox), widely separated in time and in ecclesial tradition, in her dynamic, relational, and transformative theology of the Holy Spirit in worship. Both liturgy and theology will be enriched by the study of this book. Paul Avis, Durham University and University of Exeter Throughout this book, Elizabeth Welch makes fresh and stimulating connections. She writes persuasively about the meeting of Christian West and Christian East in the rich theology of the Holy Spirit and of worship developed by the seventeenth-century Puritan John Owen and the contemporary Orthodox theologian John Zizioulas. Through this sharply focused study, she illuminates central ecclesiological themes common to East and West. This is an original, thought-provoking, and profoundly irenic book. Nicholas Sagovsky, King's College London What connects a seventeenth-century English Puritan with a twenty-first-century Greek Orthodox theologian? The Holy Spirit! Elizabeth Welch's analysis of pneumatology in John Owen and John Zizioulas reveals unexpected convergence between the two thinkers. Insightful and stimulating, there is much here which promotes the quest to renew Christian worship and reinvigorate ecumenical dialogue. Robert Pope, Westminster College, Cambridge, United Kingdom In a post-denominational era, where the momentum of the church seems to have shifted to the 'new' and 'pentecostal' churches, Dr. Welch's book is an important contribution to the contemporary ecumenical discussion about the place and work of the Holy Spirit in the worship of the church and a reminder of the significance of the historic discussions to that debate." John Burgess, retired minister and training officer of the United Reformed Church In my opinion it is still the case that the latter has far too little emphasis, especially in Protestant services. I am therefore happy with this pneumatological attention to the liturgy and find it very commendable that the author also empahasises this in one (special) reformed 'father'. At the same time I think that the pneumatological reflection in this book are undeveloped. Owen and Zizioulas and their diverse contexts and positions demand so much from the author, that a pneumatological approach to worship in the primer remains. It would be great if Welch came soon time takes us into the next layers of paint. Klaas Bom In KERK EN THEOLOGIE 74.3 (2023), pp317-318.Table of ContentsForeword by Ben Quash Preface Acknowledgments 1. The Holy Spirit and Worship: Setting the Scene 2. Owen's and Zizioulas's Trinitarian Foundations 3. The "Dynamic Recovery" of the Holy Spirit in Owen and Zizioulas 4. The Significance of Worship for Owen and Zizioulas 5. The Quadrilateral, Part One: The Holy Spirit and the Trinity - Personal and Relational Understanding 6. The Quadrilateral, Part Two: The Holy Spirit Encountered in Worship - Immediacy, Mediation, and Otherness 7. The Quadrilateral, Part Three: "The Spirit Will Guide You into All the Truth" 8. The Quadrilateral, Part Four: Worship in the Power of the Holy Spirit - The Nature of Transformation 9. The Holy Spirit and Worship: Ecumenical Implications Appendix: Contents of Goold's edition of John Owen's Works Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisT.F. Torrance''s Conflict and Agreement in the Church gathers together his most influential essays and articles on topics relating to ecumenism. Himself involved heavily in the ecumenical movement, he wrote that ''ours must be the task of learning together again how to confess, like the early Church, faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour and God in all its breadth and length and height and depth, and therefore in the overflowing love of God.'' Out of this conviction grew a comprehensive doctrine of the Church ''in which our differences are lost sight of because they are destroyed from behind by a masterful faith in the Saviour of men.''In this second volume, Torrance''s thought on inter-denominational cooperation in light of the Church''s mission is presented. He begins by suggesting that ''the lines of conflict and agreement in the Church coincide less and less with the frontiers of the historic communions''. This opens the door for greater union between those communion, but also exposes s

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Book SynopsisA century ago Canada was considered to be a Christian nation and the vast majority of Canadians claimed they were devoutly religious. But some vigorously resisted the dominance of Christianity. Towards a Godless Dominion explores both anti-religious activism and the organized opposition religious unbelievers faced from Canada in the 1920s and ’30s.Trade Review“Engaging, insightful, well-written, and solidly researched. Elliot Hanowski adds a new dimension to our understanding of religion and irreligion in twentieth-century Canada. The book further expands our knowledge of the religious spectrum in Canadian society, importantly deflecting attention away from the historic mainstream churches and beliefs.” David B. Marshall, University of Calgary and author of Secularizing the Faith: Canadian Protestant Clergy and the Crisis of Belief, 1850–1940“Towards a Godless Dominion reminds us that repression works. Elites remain as ready and able as ever to stifle the kinds of speech that they find threatening. It takes courage or at least eccentricity to resist them.” Literature Review of Canada

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Book SynopsisA century ago Canada was considered to be a Christian nation and the vast majority of Canadians claimed they were devoutly religious. But some vigorously resisted the dominance of Christianity. Towards a Godless Dominion explores both anti-religious activism and the organized opposition religious unbelievers faced from Canada in the 1920s and ’30s.Trade Review“Engaging, insightful, well-written, and solidly researched. Elliot Hanowski adds a new dimension to our understanding of religion and irreligion in twentieth-century Canada. The book further expands our knowledge of the religious spectrum in Canadian society, importantly deflecting attention away from the historic mainstream churches and beliefs.” David B. Marshall, University of Calgary and author of Secularizing the Faith: Canadian Protestant Clergy and the Crisis of Belief, 1850–1940“Towards a Godless Dominion reminds us that repression works. Elites remain as ready and able as ever to stifle the kinds of speech that they find threatening. It takes courage or at least eccentricity to resist them.” Literature Review of Canada

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Book SynopsisThis volume analyzes changing relationships between religion and national identity in the course of European integration. Examining elite discourse, media debates and public opinions across Europe over a decade, it explores how accelerated European integration and Eastern enlargement have affected religious markers of collective identity. Trade Review“This is a book that traces, conceptually, theoretically and empirically, the impact of EU institutions on identity – and more specifically, religious identity. Much of the strength of the book derives from a research design that combines rich analysis of individual case studies with the identification of broad patterns and common themes. … editors have contributed to our understanding of the ways in which EU integration has shaped the development of national – and mainly religious – identity in different member states.” (Daphne Halikiopoulou, Religion and Society in Central and Eastern Europe, Vol. 9 (1), 2017)“This book sets out to redress the neglect of religion as an element of collective identities in the study of European integration from 1990–2010. … it makes a valuable contribution to the study of the entanglement of religion with national identities as they are effected by the processes of European integration. Hopefully this will provide a solid foundation for further research in this area, incorporating other cases, engaging with greater varieties of religion and encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration and debate.” (Liam Sutherland, Nations and Nationalism, Vol. 22 (4), October, 2016)Table of Contents1. Religion, Nationalism and European Integration Introduction; Matthias Koenig and Wolfgang Knöbl 2. The (Fragile) Normalization of German Identity within Europe; Willfried Spohn 3. Changing Frameworks of National Identity in Post-communist Poland; Miko?aj Lewicki and S?awomir Mandes 4. Greek Identity and Europe Entanglements and Tensions; Effie Fokas and Evangelos Karagiannis 5. Turkey in Europe, Europe in Turkey History, Elites, and the Media; Levent Soysal, Saime Özçürümez and Ça?la Diner 6. Religious Dimensions of National and European Identities: Evidence from Cross-national Survey Research; Sabine Trittler, Slawomir Mandes and Matthias Koenig 7. Varieties of Religious Nationalism; Matthias Koenig and Wolfgang Knöbl

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Book SynopsisReligion, Theory, Critique is an essential tool for learning about theory and method in the study of religion. Leading experts engage with contemporary and classical theories as well as non-Western cultural contexts. It is the first textbook which seeks to engage discussion of classical approaches with contemporary cultural and critical theories.Trade ReviewCovering an important and impressive range of theoretical approaches and critical engagement, this sophisticated book will be a useful resource for serious scholars of religion as well as those working in related fields such as anthropology, sociology of religion, and psychology of religion. -- Hugh Urban, Ohio State University Once driven by a comparative method on the trail of timeless universals, the academic study of religion is today an entirely different beast: a newer generation is far more sensitive to viewpoint, theory, and the practical implications of scholarship itself. Religion, Theory, Critique offers a set of state-of-the-art essays that keep in sight both the study of religious people as well as those who classify them as religious. It therefore sets the table for scrutinizing the entire field-including our tools and our assumptions. -- Russell McCutcheon, University of Alabama This volume will quickly become essential to undergraduate and graduate 'theory and method' courses, as well as a range of 'religion and culture' courses and graduate student reading lists. -- M. Gail Hamner, Syracuse UniversityTable of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments 1. The Copernican Turn in the Study of Religion, by Richard King Part 1: Historical Foundations/Genealogies 2. Nominalist "Judaism" and the Late-Ancient Invention of Religion, by Daniel Boyarin 3. Bible/Religion/Critique, by Ward Blanton and Yvonne Sherwood 4. Hegel: On Secularity and the Religion-Making Machine, by Arvind Mandair 5. Friedrich Max Muller and the Science of Religion, by Lourens van den Bosch 6. Classic Comparative Theology and the Study of Religion, by Hugh Nicholson 7. Religion, Religious Studies, and Shinto in Modern Japan, by Jun'ichi Isomae Part 2: The Enlightenment Critique of Religion 8. David Hume on Religion, by Randall Styers 9. Feuerbach on Religion, by Jay Geller 10. Nietzsche: Life, Works, Reception, by Tyler Roberts 11. Sigmund Freud on Religion, by Volney Gay 12. Karl Marx on Religion, by Terry Rey 13. "Religion" in the Writings of the New Atheists, by Tina Beattie Part 3: Religion Beyond the West 14. Indigenous African Traditions as Models for Theorizing Religion, by Edward P. Antonio 15. Zongjiao and the Category of Religion in China, by Ya-pei Kuo 16. Islamic D?n as an Alternative to Western Models of "Religion", by Ahmet T. Karamustafa 17. Translation, by Arvind Mandair Part 4: Religion as Experience 18. The Psychology of Religion, by Jeremy Carrette 19. William James and the Study of Religion: A Critical Reading, by Jeremy Carrette and David Lamberth 20. Rudolf Otto and the Idea of the Holy, by Gregory Alles 21. Jung on Religion, by Volney Gay 22. Religion and the Brain: Cognitive Science as a Basis for Theories of Religion, by Ilkka Pyysiainen 23. A Critical Response to Cognitivist Theories of Religion, by Steven Engler and Mark Quentin Gardiner Part 5: Religion, Language, and Myth 24. "Religion" in Anglo-American (Analytical) Philosophy of Religion, by Ludger Viefhues-Bailey 25. Structuralist Linguistics and Structuralist Theories of Religion, by Volney Gay 26. Imagining, Manufacturing, and Theorizing Myth: An Overview of Key Theories of Myth and Religion, by Daniel Dubuisson Part 6: Religion/Society/Culture 27. The Origins of the Sociology of Religion: The Problem of "Religion" and "Religions" in Classical Sociology, by Bryan S. Turner 28. Contemporary Social Theory and Religion: The Misconstrual of Religion in Theories of "Second" Modernity, by Simon Speck 29. Classical Anthropological Theories of Religion, by Randall Styers 30. Defining Religion: Geertz and Asad, by Jon P. Mitchell 31. Religion, Media, and Cultural Studies, by Richard Fox Part 7: Religion, Ritual, and Action 32. Classic Ritual Theories, by Ulrike Brunotte 33. The Myth-Ritual Debate, by Ulrike Brunotte 34. From Ritual to Ritualization, by Jon P. Mitchell 35. Religion and Theories of Action, by Kocku von Stuckrad Part 8: The Phenomenology of Religion and Its Critics 36. Phenomenology of Religion: The Philosophical Background, by Charles E. Scott 37. The Phenomenology of Religion, by James L. Cox 38. Mircea Eliade, by Gregory Alles 39. Critical Responses to Phenomenological Theories of Religion: What Kind of Category Is "Religion"?, by William Arnal 40. Critical Religion: "Religion" Is Not a Stand-Alone Category, by Timothy Fitzgerald Part 9: Religion and Contemporary European Thought 41. Post-Marxism and Religion, by Nelson Maldonado-Torres 42. Pierre Bourdieu on Religion, by Terry Rey 43. Jacques Derrida on Religion, by Ellen Armour 44. Foucault and the Study of Religion, by Jeremy Carrette 45. Contemporary Continental Philosophy and the "Return of the Religious", by Randall Styers Part 10: Religion, Gender, and Sexuality 46. Feminist Approaches to the Study of Religion, by Darlene Juschka 47. French Feminism and Religion, by Morny Joy 48. Queer Theory Meets Critical Religion: Are We Starting to Think Yet?, by Naomi R. Goldenberg Part 11: Religion, Coloniality and Race 49. Religion, Modernity, and Coloniality, by Nelson Maldonado-Torres 50. Apartheid Comparative Religion in South Africa, by David Chidester 51. Theorizing Race and Religion: Du Bois, Cox, and Fanon, by William David Hart 52. Black Cultural Criticism, the New Politics of Difference, and Religious Criticism, by Victor Anderson 53. Theorizing Black Religious Studies: A Genealogy, by Victor Anderson Part 12: Religion/Nation/Globalization 54. Religion and Violence, by William T. Cavanaugh 55. Religion and Economy, by Gregory Alles 56. Globalization and Religion, by Jeremy Carrette List of Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review[T]he book will have some real and lasting use as a primary source American Catholic Studies

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThe essays are uniformly of high quality...highly recommended. ChoiceTable of ContentsIntroduction, by Jonathan Judaken Part I: (Trans)National Contexts 1. Russian Existentialism, or Existential Russianism, by Val Vinokur 2. German Existentialism and the Persistence of Metaphysics: Weber, Jaspers, Heidegger, by Peter E. Gordon 3. Sisyphus's Progeny: Existentialism in France, by Jonathan Judaken 4. "To Punch Through 'Pasteboard Masks'?": American Existentialism, by George Cotkin 5. Angst Across the Channel: Existentialism in Britain, by Martin Woessner 6. Existentialisms in the Hispanic and Latin American Worlds: El Quixote and its Existential Children Part II: Existentialism and Religion 7. Fear and Trembling and the Paradox of Christian Existentialism, by George Pattison 8. Jewish Co-Existentialism: Being with the Other, by Paul Mendes-Flohr 9. Camus the Unbeliever: Living Without God, by Ronald Aronson Part III: Migrations 10. Anxiety and Secularization: Soren Kierkegaard and the Twentieth-Century Invention of Existentialism, by Samuel Moyn 11. Rethinking the 'Existential' Nietzsche in German: Lowith, Jaspers, Heidegger, by Charles Bambach Charles Bambach 12. Situating Frantz Fanon's Account of Black Experience, by Robert Bernasconi 13. Simone de Beauvoir in her Times and Ours: The Second Sex and its Legacy in French Feminist Thought, by Debra Bergoffen 14. The "Letter on Humanism": Reading Heidegger in France, by Ethan Kleinberg List of Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisAn exciting look at contemporary scientific cosmologies and their relationship to philosophy and religion.Trade ReviewRubenstein grounds the current debate on the plurality of universes on solid scholarship, skillfully exploring its historical and philosophical roots. -- Marcelo Gleiser, Dartmouth College This is a work that performs the 'many-oneness' of the multiverse, whose history and potentiality it maps. As she traces the startling philosophical depths, mystical ancestry, and scientific shocks of this cosmic boundlessness, Rubenstein's brilliance sparkles like its innumerable stars. -- Catherine Keller, author of Face of the Deep: A Theology of Becoming Some physicists suggest that our cosmos has been caught in an endless loop, repeatedly cycling between big bangs since time immemorial. In Worlds Without End, Mary-Jane Rubenstein provides a remarkable tour of how such ideas-and competing ideas about whether our universe is embedded within some larger multiverse-have likewise been cycling throughout Western thought for millennia. This deeply learned excavation is a rare accomplishment: a page-turner that asks large questions about science, philosophy, and religion. Fascinating. -- David Kaiser, author of How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival We are living through a golden age of cosmology, when observations reveal a universe 13.8 billion years big and new theories and new evidence vie with one another almost on a daily basis. Rubenstein is an expert guide to this dramatic scene. Uncovering humorous comparisons with the past, she shows that our golden age is tarnished in only a few ways. We cannot tell which of the many-worlds hypotheses is the right one, whether they exist under an integrated set of laws, and we may never be able to so. Yet the quest continues and produces many profound insights. Rubenstein shows the way scientific worldviews grow from the kind of questions we ask, how metaphysics and physics are mutually entangled, and how the many worlds of her title emerge, again and again over two thousand years, often in spite of their authors' intentions and taste. A witty and mature view of views. -- Charles Jencks , author of The Garden of Cosmic Speculation A must read for anyone who is interested in the evolution of human thought about the cosmos. The reader is led through the history of philosophical, religious and scientific ideas and arguments for the existence of many worlds then left to contemplate their own ending to the cosmic story. A beautiful and authoritative description of the struggles and developments of competing ideas about nature for the past three millenia -- Laura Mersini-Houghton, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Rubenstein's witty, thought-provoking history of philosophy and physics leaves one in awe of just how close Thomas Aquinas and American physicist Steven Weinberg are in spirit as they seek ultimate answers. Publishers Weekly Wonderful... A fun, mind-stretching read, clear and enlightening. San Francisco Book Review A fascinating and very well-written book... Green Spirit Magazine An excellent starting point for those wishing to go even deeper down the throat of the wormhole. Recommended. CHOICE If one seeks a scholarly account of the main ideas rather than of the detailed science, then Worlds Without End is excellent. Physics TodayTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: How to Avoid the G-Word 1. A Single, Complete Whole 2. Ancient Openings of Multiplicity 3. Navigating the Infinite 4. Measuring the Immeasurable 5. Bangs, Bubbles, and Branes: Atomists Versus Stoics, Take Two 6. Ascending to the Ultimate Multiverse Unendings: On the Entanglement of Science and Religion Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThrough her wonder and her doubt Kristeva sets forth a compelling account of the sacred and of the intimate visionary capacity of the human soul. -- Joshua Paetkau The Ecclesial University Blog The Severed Head is a reminder that art can be the best teacher, particularly when the topic is an uncomfortable one. -- Patricia Contino New Pages.com This beautifully written and richly layered meditation on mortality and representation will undoubtedly appeal to those readers interested in semiotic and psychoanalytically informed readings of art. -- Jonathan Patkowski Library Journal XPress Reviews The Severed Head considers a remarkable a remarkable range of representations of the severed head in art historical, religious and mythological contexts. TLS

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThrough her wonder and her doubt Kristeva sets forth a compelling account of the sacred and of the intimate visionary capacity of the human soul. -- Joshua Paetkau The Ecclesial University Blog The Severed Head is a reminder that art can be the best teacher, particularly when the topic is an uncomfortable one. -- Patricia Contino New Pages.com This beautifully written and richly layered meditation on mortality and representation will undoubtedly appeal to those readers interested in semiotic and psychoanalytically informed readings of art. -- Jonathan Patkowski Library Journal XPress Reviews The Severed Head considers a remarkable a remarkable range of representations of the severed head in art historical, religious and mythological contexts. TLS

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewKevin M. Cahill knows the relevant literature well and deploys it with care and sophistication, developing an interpretation that confirms and enhances the intrinsic intellectual interest of resolute and therapeutic readings of Wittgenstein. -- Stephen Mulhall, New College, Oxford University, author of Wittgenstein's Private Language: Grammar, Nonsense, and Imagination in Philosophical Investigations ...a worthy contribution to this discussion. Choice ...a book of multiple ambitions, skillfully juggled and substantially realized. -- Naomi Scheman Austrain Sstudies NewsMagazineTable of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgments Introduction Part I 1. Interpreting the Tractatus 2. The Ethical Purpose of the Tractatus 3. A Resolute Failure Conclusion to Part I Part II 4. The Concept of Progress in Wittgenstein's Thought 5. The Truly Apocalyptic View 6. The Fate of Metaphysics Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThis book is bound to become a standard against which future scholarship on the cultural history of Christianity and several related fields will be evaluated. It achieves the feat of offering an exhaustive genealogy of the significance of "blood" in Western civilization, thereby pulling blood into an urgently needed visibility. -- Elisabeth Weber, University of California, Santa Barbara This is an original reading of the place of blood in Christian theology and religion and its far-reaching impact on the history and cultural practices of the West. It is distinguished by the singular voice of its author, who is at once fiercely critical, ironic, contemptuous, erudite, and enlightening as he engages thinkers both living and dead on the relationship between blood and its many metaphoric and literal representations. This is not a conventional book in any way, it is a manifesto, a call, if not to arms, then to recognition of the fact that Western thought, its social and political organization, is infused with Christianity, even if those influenced by it are not practicing Christians in any religious sense. -- Joan W. Scott, Harold F. Linder Professor, Institute for Advanced Study As in all his writings, Anidjar always surprises us by seeing connections where others have missed them. In this challenging book, he brilliantly excavates the meanings of blood in Christianity as well as how those meanings persist in our world in barely secularized form. -- David Biale, author of Blood and Belief: The Circulation of a Symbol Between Jews and Christians Blood is first of all language, style, thought in writing. Blood is relentlessly compelling, a joyful destruction of trivialities, a delight of erudition. Blood is moved by epistemic urgency and internal critique, it answers the need for historical perspective, guided by the desire to understand what we are politically made of. Blood looks at the way blood speaks and is spoken, how it governs and rules over us, how it shapes the Christian nation, the state and the economy. Our obsession with blood is not a thing of the past, it is our absolute present time. Blood is not a metaphor, it is an organizing principle. Blood is not what Harvey discovered, something that would always have been known to us. It is what the Eucharist partakes of and brings up: the community of blood, blood piety--soon the purity of blood. And from these are derived our theory and politics, kinship and race, science and religion, literature and dreams, technology and bodies. Blood is an exceptionally powerful and fascinating object to be read, kept on a shelf--and meditated. -- Dominique Pestre, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales In this highly original book Anidjar deconstructs 'Christianity' into its element: blood. In doing so he demonstrates, with impressive skill, the ubiquity of blood-and its metamorphoses-in Christian history. In this exploration of the circulation of blood as the life of nation, state, and capital, the reader is presented with an extraordinary account of modernity no less. Scholars of modernity will learn to see 'Christianity' as something at once more and less than 'religion'-even though it is, as Anidjar argues, the (misleading) prototype of all religions.' This is a work to be read carefully and its implications pondered over. -- Talal Asad, CUNY Graduate Center Every once in awhile one encounters a book that makes one ask: 'why has this not been written before?' How could we have overlooked the importance of blood? What is it? A fact, metaphor, substance, medium, or element in which we live and move? A bloodbath? Or are we merely the tub, the tubes, and plumbing in which the essence of life and symbol of violent death gurgles and flows. Anidjar has identified, not a bright red line, but an entire circulatory system that links religion, race, economics, the state, the family, and biology. This is a book that will not so much be read as injected into all these discourses, infecting them with a necessary and viral critique. A brilliant achievement by one of the most original intellects of our time. -- W. J. T. Mitchell, University of Chicago, editor of Critical Inquiry Ambitious and daring... Blood is bound to provoke heated discussion... Immanent Frame Academic books can dazzle for a variety of reasons. Some projects are so painstakingly, meticulously researched that, even though the subject matter is sometimes dry and often only ever capable of appealing to a highly specific audience, they command respect. Other works are written with such finesse and linguistic dexterity that they dazzle with their glimmering sheen of intellectual bravura. Yet others become cornerstones of the academic canon because of their wide-reaching implications in many diverse disciplines. Blood: A Critique of Christianity is that rare combination that manages all three. A project of soaring ambition and incredible scope, Gil Anidjar attempts to weave a narrative constructed from-and soaked in-the cultural, social, political history of blood within Christianity and, by extension, the entire Western world. Oxonian Review Gil Anidjar's Blood: A Critique of Christianity is a consuming book - a fierce intelligence combined with compelling readings of everything and anything related to the mechanics of circulation, the rhythmic splattered arcs, the media and metaphysics, the diseases born within and carried by the blood. Syndicate - John Modern Gil Anidjar academia's Quentin Tarantino. Both men have rewritten the history of the modern West as a history of blood... One can only wish Anidjar's work Tarantinoesque popularity. Syndicate - Bettina Bildhauer Blood: A Critique of Christianity offers a dazzling and occasionally maddening meditation on the theme of blood in Christianity and Western culture... As a commentary on literature and western thought, Blood is delightful and convincing. Syndicate - Brittany Pheiffer Noble This book designs to provoke, not persuade. It uses history not to make arguments, but to pose questions... There is much to admire in the book... The sheer number of surprising hypotheses will generate some brilliant ones. Syndicate - Eugene Rogers Blood is a book every Christian should read. Journal of the Conference on Faith and HistoryTable of ContentsPreface: Why I Am Such a Good Christian Acknowledgments Introduction: Red Mythology Part One. The Vampire State 1. Nation (Jesus' Kin) 2. State (The Vampire State) 3. Capital (Christians and Money) Part Two. Hematologies 4. Odysseus' Blood 5. Bleeding and Melancholia 6. Leviathan and the Blood Pump Conclusion: On the Christian Question (Jesus and Monotheism ) Notes Index

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThis book is bound to become a standard against which future scholarship on the cultural history of Christianity and several related fields will be evaluated. It achieves the feat of offering an exhaustive genealogy of the significance of "blood" in Western civilization, thereby pulling blood into an urgently needed visibility. -- Elisabeth Weber, University of California, Santa Barbara This is an original reading of the place of blood in Christian theology and religion and its far-reaching impact on the history and cultural practices of the West. It is distinguished by the singular voice of its author, who is at once fiercely critical, ironic, contemptuous, erudite, and enlightening as he engages thinkers both living and dead on the relationship between blood and its many metaphoric and literal representations. This is not a conventional book in any way, it is a manifesto, a call, if not to arms, then to recognition of the fact that Western thought, its social and political organization, is infused with Christianity, even if those influenced by it are not practicing Christians in any religious sense. -- Joan W. Scott, Harold F. Linder Professor, Institute for Advanced Study As in all his writings, Anidjar always surprises us by seeing connections where others have missed them. In this challenging book, he brilliantly excavates the meanings of blood in Christianity as well as how those meanings persist in our world in barely secularized form. -- David Biale, author of Blood and Belief: The Circulation of a Symbol Between Jews and Christians Blood is first of all language, style, thought in writing. Blood is relentlessly compelling, a joyful destruction of trivialities, a delight of erudition. Blood is moved by epistemic urgency and internal critique, it answers the need for historical perspective, guided by the desire to understand what we are politically made of. Blood looks at the way blood speaks and is spoken, how it governs and rules over us, how it shapes the Christian nation, the state and the economy. Our obsession with blood is not a thing of the past, it is our absolute present time. Blood is not a metaphor, it is an organizing principle. Blood is not what Harvey discovered, something that would always have been known to us. It is what the Eucharist partakes of and brings up: the community of blood, blood piety--soon the purity of blood. And from these are derived our theory and politics, kinship and race, science and religion, literature and dreams, technology and bodies. Blood is an exceptionally powerful and fascinating object to be read, kept on a shelf--and meditated. -- Dominique Pestre, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales In this highly original book Anidjar deconstructs 'Christianity' into its element: blood. In doing so he demonstrates, with impressive skill, the ubiquity of blood-and its metamorphoses-in Christian history. In this exploration of the circulation of blood as the life of nation, state, and capital, the reader is presented with an extraordinary account of modernity no less. Scholars of modernity will learn to see 'Christianity' as something at once more and less than 'religion'-even though it is, as Anidjar argues, the (misleading) prototype of all religions.' This is a work to be read carefully and its implications pondered over. -- Talal Asad, CUNY Graduate Center Every once in awhile one encounters a book that makes one ask: 'why has this not been written before?' How could we have overlooked the importance of blood? What is it? A fact, metaphor, substance, medium, or element in which we live and move? A bloodbath? Or are we merely the tub, the tubes, and plumbing in which the essence of life and symbol of violent death gurgles and flows. Anidjar has identified, not a bright red line, but an entire circulatory system that links religion, race, economics, the state, the family, and biology. This is a book that will not so much be read as injected into all these discourses, infecting them with a necessary and viral critique. A brilliant achievement by one of the most original intellects of our time. -- W. J. T. Mitchell, University of Chicago, editor of Critical Inquiry Ambitious and daring... Blood is bound to provoke heated discussion... Immanent Frame Academic books can dazzle for a variety of reasons. Some projects are so painstakingly, meticulously researched that, even though the subject matter is sometimes dry and often only ever capable of appealing to a highly specific audience, they command respect. Other works are written with such finesse and linguistic dexterity that they dazzle with their glimmering sheen of intellectual bravura. Yet others become cornerstones of the academic canon because of their wide-reaching implications in many diverse disciplines. Blood: A Critique of Christianity is that rare combination that manages all three. A project of soaring ambition and incredible scope, Gil Anidjar attempts to weave a narrative constructed from-and soaked in-the cultural, social, political history of blood within Christianity and, by extension, the entire Western world. Oxonian Review Gil Anidjar's Blood: A Critique of Christianity is a consuming book - a fierce intelligence combined with compelling readings of everything and anything related to the mechanics of circulation, the rhythmic splattered arcs, the media and metaphysics, the diseases born within and carried by the blood. Syndicate - John Modern Gil Anidjar academia's Quentin Tarantino. Both men have rewritten the history of the modern West as a history of blood... One can only wish Anidjar's work Tarantinoesque popularity. Syndicate - Bettina Bildhauer Blood: A Critique of Christianity offers a dazzling and occasionally maddening meditation on the theme of blood in Christianity and Western culture... As a commentary on literature and western thought, Blood is delightful and convincing. Syndicate - Brittany Pheiffer Noble This book designs to provoke, not persuade. It uses history not to make arguments, but to pose questions... There is much to admire in the book... The sheer number of surprising hypotheses will generate some brilliant ones. Syndicate - Eugene Rogers Blood is a book every Christian should read. Journal of the Conference on Faith and HistoryTable of ContentsPreface: Why I Am Such a Good Christian Acknowledgments Introduction: Red Mythology Part One. The Vampire State 1. Nation (Jesus' Kin) 2. State (The Vampire State) 3. Capital (Christians and Money) Part Two. Hematologies 4. Odysseus' Blood 5. Bleeding and Melancholia 6. Leviathan and the Blood Pump Conclusion: On the Christian Question (Jesus and Monotheism ) Notes Index

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Book SynopsisA fresh interpretation of Nietzsche's engagement with the work of Paul the Apostle, reorienting the relationship between the two thinkers while embedding modern philosophy within early Christian theology.Trade ReviewWritten in a precise and economical style, crystallizing its points with aphoristic clarity, Nietzsche Versus Paul reconstructs a series of "Christian" moments found throughout the Nietzschean corpus and so reveals a surprisingly consistent, sophisticated, and cunning structure. This contribution goes far beyond the circles of Nietzsche scholarship, where it will certainly be received as a fresh and powerful intervention. Indeed, it is an original conceptualization of atheism, nihilism, secularization, and modernity as well, and will be warmly received by scholars of philosophy and religion, especially, those interested in their intersection. -- Judith Butler, University of California, Berkeley Nietzsche versus Paul is a wonderful, philosophically engaging book, meticulous -- even relentless -- in its argumentation, arresting in its interpretive scope, and dedicated to the surprisingly neglected presence of Christianity in Nietzsche. -- Gil Anidjar, Columbia University A brilliant reconstructive projective which fills a genuine lacuna in recent scholarship in history, philosophy, and theology alike. Nietzsche versus Paul is coherent, well formulated, and of extraordinary importance for all of the larger philosophical and historical discussions which have emerged, surprisingly, to become some of the most pressing 'theory' topics of our time. -- Ward Blanton, University of KentTable of ContentsAcknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction 1. From Dionysian Tragedy to Christianity 2. From Judaism to Christianity 3. Jesus-Christ and the Two Worlds of Early Christianity 4. Paul: The First Christian 5. Science and Art After the Death of God 6. Beyond Modern Temporality Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisA progressive reading of the history of the unknown that projects a hopeful future.Trade ReviewA sizzling, citable line on every page, this is Catherine Keller at her poetic, theopoetic, theological best. She meditates not the fire of the apocalypse, nor the water of the deep, but the cloud-of the impossible which precipitates the possible itself, the entanglement of knowing and nonknowing, of the relational and what overflows relation, of the enfolding and the unfolding. For her, the name of God is not the name of a cause or a guarantee but the lure of something that needs to be made and done. From philosophy and theology to physics and ecology-a sensational tour de force from a major theological voice. -- John D. Caputo, Syracuse University and Villanova University At last! A negative theology that plies the complex requirements of planetary life. Long intent on crafting ways of thinking theologically that resist common and oversimplified oppositions between divine and fleshy things, Catherine Keller leads us via ancient, medieval, and recent traditions of unsaying certainties into a rich understanding of divine entanglement as a basis for communal thriving and just democracy. This is a monumental contribution to Christian theology, especially regarding its foundational claims of divine embodiment and love. -- Laurel C. Schneider, Vanderbilt University Catherine Keller is our most creative and profound theologian today, and this book is her richest to date, tracking the enfolding and unfolding relation of everything to everything with theopoetic brilliance. -- Gary Dorrien, author of Kantian Reason and Hegelian Spirit: The Idealistic Logic of Modern Theology Catherine Keller's nuanced consideration of the apophatic cloud is both true to its subject and marvelously lucid. Tracing unexpected connections in the thought of medieval theologians, process philosophers, environmental activists, quantum physicists, and more, the book enfolds and unfolds, each line of thought traced with delicate precision, each intersection marked. Out of impossibility itself, enfolded in each and every relation, a new and open possible emerges. Through folds and mirrors, holograms and entanglements, poetry and theology, trauma and joy, this possible-impossible, this luminous darkness, entice us to follow-and to be glad that we did. -- Karmen MacKendrick, Le Moyne College Facing the complex majesty of Cloud of the Impossible, one cannot help but feel like some Moses-manque before a literary Sinai. The prose is finely wrought, tracing the inter- and indeterminacies of a provisionally named 'apophatic entanglement.' This is a beautiful and important book, which traces the contours of a transfigured, queerly-theological discourse and practice--precisely where such a thing might seem impossible. -- Mary-Jane Rubenstein, Wesleyan University With this work, Catherine Keller has produced a masterpiece on the level of her Face of the Deep: A Theology of Becoming. There is something of James Joyce in these pages. Readers are taken through core Hebrew and Greek debates, the emergence of infinity in Patristic theology, Christian and non-Christian mysticism, quantum physics, contemporary poststructuralist philosophy, the plight of theology today, nineteenth-century poetry, the environmental crisis... and that is only a start. Many critics will say that this is her best book yet. -- Philip Clayton, Ingraham Professor, Claremont School of Theology Keller's bewildering and creatively beautiful body of work is often more poetry than prose... It is always worth the effort. Christian Century An impressive and astonishing work. Syndicate Theology This is an extraordinary book... Readers will engage an astounding sweep of resources and conversation partners in this book. InterpretationTable of ContentsBefore Part 1: Complications 1. The Dark Nuance of Beginning 2. Cloud-Writing: A Genealogy of the Luminous Dark 3. Enfolding and Unfolding God: Cusanic Complicatio Part 2: Explications 4. Spooky Entanglements: The Physics of Nonseparability 5. The Fold in Process: Deleuze and Whitehead 6. "Unfolded Out of the Folds": Walt Whitman and the Apophatic Sex of the Earth 7. Unsaying and Undoing: Judith Butler and the Ethics of Relational Ontology Part 3: Implications 8. Crusade, Capital, and Cosmopolis: Ambiguous Entanglements 9. Broken Touch: Ecology of the Im/possible 10. In Questionable Love After: Theopoetics of the Cloud Notes Acknowledments Index

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewA deeply impressive scholarly achievement, with first-class translations of many notoriously complex texts -- Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of CanterburyThis hugely useful volume is the best sort of scholarship . . . We are deeply in his debt -- Diarmaid McCulloch, author of A History of ChristianityThis will become the standard version both for the general reader and for scholars -- John Barton, author of A History of the Bible

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Book SynopsisA fresh reading of Kierkegaard that engages an essential problem in the philosophy of religion - the difference between what is understood by reason and what must be taken on faithTrade ReviewAs the title The Paradoxical Rationality of Søren Kierkegaard suggests, Richard McCombs sets out to dispel the . . . common view that Kierkegaard is an irrationalist, especially when it comes to matters of faith. Much of the book is dedicated to the idea that despite Kierkegaard's many direct statements against reason, he is actually making an indirect case for how sensible faith in Christ really is.22.4 2014 * International Journal of Philosophiical Studies *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsAbbreviations1. A Pretense of Irrationalism2. Paradoxical Rationality3. Reverse Theology4. The Subtle Power of Simplicity5. A Critique of Indirect Communication6. The Figure of Socrates and the Climacean Capacity of Paradoxical Reason7. The Figure of Socrates and the Downfall of Paradoxical Reason8. The Proof of Paradoxical ReasonNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisOffers a bold and original view of what philosophical anthropology might look likeTrade ReviewIn the end, A Philosophical Anthropology of the Cross represents one of the first major Lutheran engagements with continental philosophy, and an excellent one at that. While the book is certainly not accessible to the layperson, it is accessible to pastors and teachers, and gives a helpful overview of the connections between major figures in continental philosophy and the trajectory of Bonhoeffer's philosophical and theological project. Most importantly, it is a valuable contribution at an important time that begins a conversation of depth about both philosophy that is engaged with the scandal of the cross as well as a robust Lutheran vocabulary of sanctification. * Dialog *Gregor's work is impressive along two important lines. One the one hand, he offers the uniformed or porrly informed philospher a clear and often quite detailed presentation of Bonhoeffer's systematic thought, with attention to its conscious relation not only to Lutheran theology but also to modern philosophy. On the other hand, he also threads that presentation into the contemporary philosophical context by marking important points of contact with work by such convivial thinkers as Ricoeur, Marcel, and Charles Taylor, but also Nietzsche and Heidegger, with whom discussion would be considerably more antagonistic.Sept. 2014 * International Philosophical Quarterly *Gregor has been true to his undertaking to investigate the implications of Paul's insight into the tension between philosophy and Christian faith. * Heythrop Journal *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsList of Abbreviations 1. Philosophy, the Cross, and Human BeingPart 1 2. The Hermeneutics of the Self 3. Faith, Substance, and the Cross 4. The Incurved Self 5. The Anthropological QuestionPart 2 6. The Concreteness and Continuity of Faith 7. The Capable Human Being as a Penultimate Good 8. The Call to Responsibility 9. Reflexivity, Intentionality, and Self-understanding 10. Religion within the Limits of the Penultimate?NotesSelect BibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisHow does viewing the American project through a theological lens complicate and enrich our understanding of America? Theologies of American Exceptionalism is a collection of fifteen interlocking essays reflecting on exceptionalist claims in and about the United States. Loosely and generatively curious, these essays bring together a range of historical and contemporary voices, some familiar and some less so, to stimulate new thought about America. Thinking theologically allows authors to revisit familiar themes and events with a new perspective; old and new wounds, enduring narratives, and the sacrificial violence at the heart of America are examined while avoiding both the triumphalism of the exceptional and the temptations of the jeremiad. Thinking theologically also involves thinking, as Joseph Winters recommends, with the unmourned. It allows for an understanding of America as fundamentally religious in a very specific way. Together these essays challenge the reader to think AmericaTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsNote on the Print EditionPrefaceLove1. Familiar Commerce and Covenantal Love, by Constance Furey2. A Yet Unapproachable America, by Matthew Scherer3. The Promise of Immanent Critique, by Joseph WintersFiction4. "A History of America": Comments on Johnson v M'Intosh, by Winnifred Fallers Sullivan5. The Great American Novel, by M. Cooper Harriss6. Memories of the Future, by W. Clark GilpinRevolution7. Revolution as Revelation, by Spencer Dew8. Exceptional Americanism, by Noah Salomon9. Unexceptionable Islam, by Faisal DevjiCommerce10. The America-Game, by Elizabeth Shakman Hurd11. American Techno-Optimism, by Lisa H. Sideris12. Sovereign Exceptionality, by Elisabeth AnkerChosen13. The Judeo-Christian Tradition, by Shaul Magid14. Sacrifice, by Stephanie Frank15. Two Theologies of Chosenness, by Benjamin L. BergerAppendixContributors

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsNote on the Print EditionPrefaceLove1. Familiar Commerce and Covenantal Love, by Constance Furey2. A Yet Unapproachable America, by Matthew Scherer3. The Promise of Immanent Critique, by Joseph WintersFiction4. "A History of America": Comments on Johnson v M'Intosh, by Winnifred Fallers Sullivan5. The Great American Novel, by M. Cooper Harriss6. Memories of the Future, by W. Clark GilpinRevolution7. Revolution as Revelation, by Spencer Dew8. Exceptional Americanism, by Noah Salomon9. Unexceptionable Islam, by Faisal DevjiCommerce10. The America-Game, by Elizabeth Shakman Hurd11. American Techno-Optimism, by Lisa H. Sideris12. Sovereign Exceptionality, by Elisabeth AnkerChosen13. The Judeo-Christian Tradition, by Shaul Magid14. Sacrifice, by Stephanie Frank15. Two Theologies of Chosenness, by Benjamin L. BergerAppendixContributors

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Book SynopsisSteven G. Smith teaches philosophy and religious studies at Millsaps College. He is author of The Concept of the Spiritual: An Essay in First Philosophy; Gender Thinking; and Worth Doing.

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Book SynopsisNorman Wirzba is Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Georgetown College. He is author of The Paradise of God: Renewing Religion in an Ecological Age and editor (with Bruce Ellis Benson) of The Phenomenology of Prayer.Bruce Ellis Benson is Associate Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Wheaton College. He is author of Pious Nietzsche (IUP, 2007). He is editor (with Kevin Vanhoozer and James K. A. Smith) of Hermeneutics at the Crossroads (IUP, 2006).

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Book SynopsisChris L. Firestone is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Trinity College in Deerfield, Ill. He is editor (with Stephen R. Palmquist) of Kant and the New Philosophy of Religion (IUP, 2006).Nathan Jacobs is Assistant Professor of Theology in the School of Biblical and Religious Studies at Trinity College in Deerfield, Ill. He has authored many articles on Kant and other topics, and is a contributor to Kant and the New Philosophy of Religion.

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Book SynopsisJ. Aaron Simmons is Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Hendrix College. David Wood is Centennial Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University and Honorary Professor of Philosophy at the University of Warwick. He is author of many books, including Time After Time (IUP, 2007).

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Book SynopsisPatricia Joy Huntington is Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies at New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, Arizona State University. She is author of Ecstatic Subjects, Utopia, and Recognition: Kristeva, Heidegger, and Irigaray and co-editor of Feminist Interpretations of Martin Heidegger.

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Book SynopsisSince the 1973 publication of Gustavo Gutiérrez's groundbreaking work A Theology of Liberation, liberation theology''s central premise of the preferential option for the poor has become one of the most important yet controversial theological themes of the twentieth century. As the situation for many of the world's poor worsens, it becomes ever more important to ensure that the option for the poor remains not only a vibrant theological concept but also a practical framework for living out the gift and challenge of Christian faith. The Preferential Option for the Poor beyond Theology draws on a diverse group of contributors to explore how disciplines as varied as law, economics, politics, the environment, science, liberal arts, film, and education can help us understand putting a commitment to the option for the poor into practice. The central focus of the book revolves around the question: How can one live a Christian life in a world of destitution? The contributTrade Review"This is a timely, rich, and thought-provoking book. In the midst of a widening gap between rich and poor, a growing knowledge of the plight of the excluded, and a renaissance of a call to solidarity in the Church, the contributions remind us that there is a lot that can be done to alleviate poverty. This book with its interdisciplinary approach encourages us to think of solutions. A preferential option for the poor as a firm commitment of thought and action can be extended beyond the boundaries of theology. Gustavo Gutiérrez, the living icon of this option, and Daniel G. Groody, a respected authority on this topic, take us on a journey that is intellectually and culturally encouraging." —Clemens Sedmak, F.D. Maurice Professor of Moral and Social Theology, King's College London“Daniel G. Groody and Gustavo Gutiérrez have given us a series of testimonies to the significance of the preferential option for the poor in the lives of authors writing from a variety of disciplines and perspectives. By fostering such interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary conversation, the authors deepen our understanding of the concept and show us its relevance outside of theology. That the poor become subjects of history, and not only its objects, lies at the core of the liberation theological approach of Gustavo Gutiérrez; it reflects an approach to challenges that is at least as necessary as our technological, political, and economic approaches and, by so doing, touches on important theological issues.” —Jacques Haers, University of Antwerp“Tackling one of theology’s most important yet controversial issues, Groody and Gutiérrez ensure that the option for the poor remains a framework for living a Christian life.” —U.S. Catholic“Drawing on a diverse group of contributors to explore how various disciplines such as law, economics, politics, the environment, science, liberal arts, film, and education can shed light on a commitment to the poor into practice. The book explores the question of how to live as a Christian in a world of destitution.” —Notre Dame Works“[Essayists] look at the way the option for the poor can shape our social, economic, political, educational and environmental approaches to poverty.” —Notre Dame Magazine"[T]he book's value is clear: if enacting true change around the problem of poverty requires input from many disciplines, then those disciplines must be brought into conversation with one another. . . . This volume should interest a broad audience, including scholars; general readers interested in the question of poverty as it relates to various disciplines and industries; and undergraduate or graduate students in classes covering liberation theology, as a needed complement to theological approaches." —Choice“. . . this book could not be more timely and relevant. . . . Each of the twelve chapters provides an inspiring and gripping testimony by a scholar or professional and their efforts to integrate the POP with their work as a lawyer, economist, businessperson, biologist, politician, professor, teacher, physician, filmmaker, or advocate for justice.”—Catholic Library World“The essays are well written, personal, and yet replete with each author’s expertise . . . . The authors skillfully and clearly point out that the option for the poor is both personally unique and socially transformative.” —American Catholic Studies“One of Gutiérrez’s key insights into missionary engagement was what is referred to as ‘a preferential option for the poor.’ . . . The importance of this publication is that while making an option for the poor can involve living in solidarity with the oppressed, the various authors demonstrate that it means “One of Gutiérrez’s key insights into missionary engagement was what is referred to as ‘a preferential option for the poor.’ . . . The importance of this publication is that while making an option for the poor can involve living in solidarity with the oppressed, the various authors demonstrate that it means above all using the skills and qualifications that one had gained in order to be in solidarity with those who are oppressed in their struggles for justice and dignity.” —Mission Studies, Volume 32, 2015above all using the skills and qualifications that one had gained in order to be in solidarity with those who are oppressed in their struggles for justice and dignity.” —Mission Studies

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Book SynopsisInvestigates an incident of holy relic theft in Rome, the lengthy legal case that followed it, and the larger questions that surrounded saints’ remains in seventeenth-century Catholic Europe.Trade Review“A very well written and argued microhistory that tells us much about how useful saints were within the post-Tridentine period. It also does wider scholarship the service of reminding even scholars who should know better that the history of relics, true and false, did not end with the Middle Ages. Harris has a mastery of the relevant literature in several languages which is both impressive and used to telling effect.”—Simon Ditchfield,University of York“The Stolen Bones of St. John of Matha is fascinating and opens a window to discuss several crucial features of early modern cultural and intellectual history. Harris’s ability to draw all these features together and put them into the context of existing scholarship is impressive.”—Stefania Tutino,University of California, Los Angeles

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Book SynopsisThe author of The Happiness Hypothesis presents a groundbreaking investigation into the origins of morality at the core of religion and politics, offering scholarly insight into the motivations behind cultural clashes that are polarizing America. 50,000 first printing.

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Book SynopsisMuch time and attention is currently devoted by Christian writers to the notion of discipleship. Many of the courses and local church programmes are, however, focused on the gathered church or on gathering. Roger Walton challenges the church to ''train and release'' reflective and creative disciples by giving attention to the presence of God in the life of the world and engaging with the divine in the ordinary. This is a challenging resource for all involved in church leadership and training new Christians.

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Book SynopsisRobert Song’s book advances a theological account of marriage and sexuality which appeals to the central biblical theme of the fulfilment of creation in Christ, but is also open to the possibility of same-sex relationships.Trade ReviewRobert Song knows he has written a book that will make no one or any side of the debates about gay marriage happy. But then, that is why this is such a good and necessary book. Song will make you happy because drawing on the wisdom of the Christian tradition he frames the arguments about gay relationships in a way that makes us think hard about why, for example, Christians do not have to have children to be Christian. Song, with wit and clarity, has opened up a new space for discussions and questions surrounding the erotic that we so sorely need. Hopefully, after reading Song, those who are sure they know what side they are on will be a little less sure. -- Stanley HauerwasRobert Song’s timely and helpful contribution to ecclesial discernment about faithful, lifelong relationships is truly scholarly in that it brings into the room a cloud of witnesses that offer light and hope, deeply pastoral in that it never loses the good shepherd’s heart for those in danger of being lost, rejected, or consumed by their own righteousness, appropriately prophetic in that it believes the question is not what scripture says but what scripture requires us now to say, and wonderfully wise in its judgements and proposals. If our prayer in the midst of conflict is not that ‘our’ side will ‘win,’ but that articulating tensions thoughtfully will bring out the best in all of us, then that prayer has been answered in this reverent, responsible and seriously thoughtful book. -- Sam WellsThis is a rare phenomenon: a genuinely fresh contribution to a well-worn debate. With rich theological insight, Robert Song reframes the issues, placing the key Christian distinction not between heterosexual and homosexual but between procreative and non-procreative relationships. This is provocative, beautifully argued, and a must-read for all seeking a way out of our present theological quagmire. -- John BarclaySong comes to support same-sex marriage but by a rather complicated route. Readers who follow his argument will find it intellectually stimulating. -- Paul Richardson * Church Newspaper *Whether one agrees with Song's argument or not, this volume is an elegant irenic, creative, and accessible work that is as valuable for the way it addresses its issues as much as, if not more than, for its specific conclusions. it is a model of how such debates should be carried out. -- Robert MacSwain * Anglican Theological Review, 98.2 *

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Book SynopsisThe Struggle for Jerusalemâs Holy Places investigates the role of architecture and urban identity in relation to the political economy of the city and its wider state context seen through the lens of the holy places. Reflecting the broad disciplinary backgrounds of the authors, this book provides perspectives from architecture, urbanism, and politics, and provides in-depth investigations of historical, ethnographic and policy-related case studies. The research is substantiated by fieldwork carried out in Jerusalem over the past ten years as part of the ESRC Large Grants project âConflict in Citiesâ. By analysing new dynamics of radicalisation through land seizure, the politicisation of parklands and tourism, the strategic manipulation of archaeological and historical narratives and material culture, and through examination of general appropriation of Jerusalemâs varied rituals, memories and symbolism for factional uses, the book reveals how possibilities of co- existence are Trade Review"This book is an interdisciplinary, rich and important study...it opens up some newdirections of understanding urban conflicts nowadays."Haim Yacobi CITY, 2015, VOL. 19, NO. 4, 579–584Table of ContentsIntroduction 2. Sacred Space in Modern Times: Jerusalem's Paradoxes 3. Jerusalem’s Holy Basin: From History to Settlement 4. David’s City in Palestinian Silwan: Towards the Tipping Point 5. The Rise of Political Islam 6. UNESCO and the Limits of International Agency 7. Holy Places and the Living City 8. Conclusion: Remaking Jerusalem

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Book SynopsisIan Wilson is a prolific, internationally published author specialising in historical and religious mysteries. Born in south London, he graduated from Magdalen College, Oxford University, in 1963 with honours in Modern History. The TV documentary that he co-scripted to accompany his 1978 Shroud book won a BAFTA award, and his later book Jesus: The Evidence was a best-seller on both sides of the Atlantic. Accompanied by his wife Judith, Wilson emigrated from England to Queensland, Australia, in 1995, where he enthusiastically continues wide-ranging research projects both at home and around the world.Trade ReviewThe godfather of the bestselling genre of historical quests that seek for the 'truth' behind ancient myths and faiths. * The Independent *Really a completely new book, which I had not quite anticipated. The updated content [and] the enhanced pictorial program (including the many colour plates) ... greatly add to its impact. * Professor John Beldon Scott *In 1978 Ian Wilson first put forward the idea that the Shroud was the same as the Mandylion of Edessa...The [latest] evidence presented...is such that the burden of proof is now on those who think that the two relics are not related... This would take the Shroud back to the seventh century at least... -- John Ray * TLS *

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Book SynopsisEditors: Jan. 1902-Jan. 1905, J.S. Bassett; Apr. 1905-Jan. 1919, W.H. Glasson (with Edwin Mims, Apr. 1905-July 1909; W.P. Few, Oct. 1909-Jan. 1919); Apr. 1919- W.K. Boyd, W.H. Wannamaker.Trade ReviewWinner of the 2016 Clifford Geertz Prize in the Anthropology of Religion, Society for the Anthropology of Religion "In crisp prose, Mahmood convincingly shows that secularism's promise for equal protection under the law for all religious believers has deeply shaped the modern world, despite the ways in which secularism itself thwarts this hope. This book challenges Western perceptions of the Middle East while deeply questioning the ability of secularism to live up to its promises."--Publishers Weekly "Stunning... Through a careful and brilliant analysis, Mahmood convincingly shows that far from a solution to the problem of interreligious strife, political secularism and modern secular governance are in fact intimately entwined to the exacerbation of religious tensions in the Middle East."--New Books in Islamic Studies "Thoroughly researched and ambitious in scope, Mahmood's latest study is an essential contribution to our understanding of secularism, minority relations and the study of religion in plural societies."--Baerd Kaertveit, Times Higher Education "In Religious Difference in a Secular Age: A Minority Report, Saba Mahmood has produced a valuable account both of how the idea of separating religion from politics came to be central to the development of the 'religiously neutral' state in Europe ... and of how that idea became politically important in the postcolonial Middle East... Her detailed analysis of the rich historical and ethnographic material she has assembled reinforces the conclusion that instead of regarding the secular state as the solution to discrimination against religious minorities, it must itself be understood as part of the problem."--Talal Asad, The Immanent Frame "Exemplary."--James Chappel, Boston Review "This discussion of Coptic Christians in Egypt offers a timely critique of contemporary notions of secularism. Mahmood demonstrates how perspectives that are largely Protestant result in ill-fitting assumptions about secularism, but shows the importance of honoring the limits of this approach rather than rejecting it altogether... Mahmood's presentation of Coptic Christian struggles highlights why the secular remains a contentious and relevant site for inquiry."--Choice "Mahmood has written an extremely well-researched book with a stimulating theoretical framework."--Vivian Ibrahim, Middle East Journal "A complex and ambitious intellectual tour de force... Mahmood's central thesis is strong and backed by ethnography. She has successfully pointed to the failure of societies, both in the West and the East, to accommodate minorities."--Akbar Ahmed, American Anthropologist "Mahmood's Religious Difference in a Secular Age masterfully combines the study of two topics in identity politics with advanced literatures--secularism and minority rights--to create an original and engaging volume about the promises and limits of political secularism."--Kristin Fabbe, Journal of Church and StateTable of ContentsACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix NOTE ON TRANSLATION AND TRANSLITERATION xiii Introduction 1 Part I Chapter 1. Minority Rights and Religious Liberty: Itineraries of Conversion 31 Chapter 2. To Be or Not to Be a Minority? 66 Part II Chapter 3. Secularism, Family Law, and Gender Inequality 111 Chapter 4. Religious and Civil Inequality 149 Chapter 5. Secularity, History, Literature 181 Epilogue 208 BIBLIOGRAPHY 215 INDEX 229

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"American Misfits is filled with colorful anecdotes, lively characters, and sharp social analysis. One of America's leading sociologists, Robert Wuthnow shows that respectability is rarely about respecting others but rather about identifying others to malign for their deficiencies and offenses."—Leigh Eric Schmidt, Washington University in St. Louis"This is an outstanding book—impressively researched, boldly argued with interdisciplinary breadth, and innovative in the way it depicts the middle-class American dream as perpetually fleeting and tenuous, marked off by day-to-day practices of the rank-and-file and prone to negotiation among those who seek to patrol the boundaries of belonging. It is also a riveting read, driven by rich description and detailed investigation of countless colorful characters who have tested those boundaries and found themselves held up as test cases of what America should and shouldn't look like, and who should and shouldn't be counted as respectable citizens."—Darren Dochuk, University of Notre DameTable of ContentsIntroduction 1 1 A Relational Approach: The Social Construction of Respect and Respectability 19 2 Worked as a Huckster: Moral Connotations of Placeless Labor 39 3 An Incurable Lunatic: Pension Politics in the Struggle for Respectability 70 4 Not a Fanatic: Zeal in the Cause of Zion 101 5 Dying Young: Immigrant Congregations as Moral Communities 135 6 Excessive Profits: Wealth, Morality, and the Common People 187 7 Naughty Children: Moral Instruction by Negative Example 227 8 Othering: Cultural Diversity and Symbolic Boundaries 258 Notes 267 Selected Bibliography 307 Index 327

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Winner of the 2017 National Jewish Book Award in Education and Jewish Identity (In Memory of Dorothy Kripke)"

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Book Synopsis

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