Christians look with hope to the resurrection of the dead and the restoration of all things. But what of those who have already died? Do they also await these things, or have they in some sense already happened for them? Within the Catholic theological community, this question has traditionally been answered in terms of the disembodied souls of human beings awaiting bodily resurrection. Since the 1960s, Catholic theologians have proposed two alternatives: resurrection at death into the Last Day and the consummation of all things, or resurrection in death into an interim state in which the embodied dead await, with us, the final consummation of all things. This book critically examines the Scriptural, philosophical and theological reasons for these alternatives and, on the basis of this analysis, offers an account of the traditional schema which makes clear that in spite of these challenges it remains the preferable option.

This book examines the post-secular idea of 'religion for non-believers'. The new form of unbelief which is dubbed as 'tourist atheism' is not based on absolute rejection of religion as a 'dangerous illusion' or 'mere prejudice'. Tourist atheists instead consider religion as a cultural heritage and a way of seeking perfection. What are the origins of these new forms of atheism? What are the implications of the emergence of a type of atheism which is more open toward religious teachings, rituals, arts, and world views? Hashemi argues that public intellectuals must consider that it is a sign of a post-secular age in which believers and non-believers go beyond mere tolerance and engage in a creative process of co-practice and co-working.

Philosophy for A Level is an accessible textbook for the new 2017 AQA Philosophy syllabus. Structured closely around the AQA specification this textbook covers the two units, Metaphysics of God and Metaphysics of Mind, in an engaging and student-friendly way. With chapters on 'How to do philosophy', exam preparation providing students with the philosophical skills they need to succeed, and an extensive glossary to support understanding, this book is ideal for students studying philosophy. Each chapter includes: argument maps that help to develop students' analytical and critical skills comprehension questions to test understanding discussion questions to generate evaluative argument explanation of and commentary on the AQA set texts 'Thinking harder' sections cross-references to help students make connections bullet-point summaries of each topic. The companion website hosts a wealth of further resources, including PowerPoint slides, flashcards, further reading, weblinks and handouts, all structured to accompany the textbook. It can be found at www.routledge.com/cw/alevelphilosophy.

This volume will concentrate its search for religious individuality on texts and practices related to texts from Classical Greece to Late Antiquity. Texts offer opportunities to express one's own religious experience and shape one's own religious personality within the boundaries of what is acceptable. Inscriptions in public or at least easily accessible spaces might substantially differ in there range of expressions and topics from letters within a sectarian religious group (which, at the same time, might put enormous pressure on conformity among its members, regarded as deviant by a majority of contemporaries). Furthermore, texts might offer and advocate new practices in reading, meditating, remembering or repeating these very texts. Such practices might contribute to the development of religious individuality, experienced or expressed in factual isolation, responsibility, competition, and finally in philosophical or theological reflections about "personhood" or "self". The volume develops its topic in three sections, addressing personhood, representative and charismatic individuality, the interaction of individual and groups and practices of reading and writing. It explores Jewish, Christian, Greek and Latin texts.

This book places the present Creationist opposition to the theory of evolution in historical context by setting out the ways in which, from the seventeenth century onwards, investigations of the history of the earth and of humanity have challenged the biblical views of chronology and human destiny, and the Christian responses to these challenges. The author's interest is not primarily directed to questions such as the epistemological status of scientific versus religious knowledge or the possibility of a Darwinian ethics, but rather to the problems, and various responses to the problems, raised in a particular historical period in the West for the Bible by the massive extension of the duration of geological time and human history.>

Noted philosopher William Hasker explores a full range of questions concerning the problem of evil. Hasker forges constructive answers in some depth showing why the evil in the world does not provide evidence of a moral fault in God, the world's creator and governor.

This book seeks to clarify the concept of irony and its relation to moral commitment. Frazier provides a discussion of the contrasting accounts of Richard Rorty and Soren Kierkegaard. He argues that, while Rorty's position is much more defensible and thoughtful than his detractors tend to recognize, it turns out to be surprisingly more parochial than Kierkegaard's.

Die Religion wurde von der kritischen Aufklärung als ein gesellschaftlicher Schonraum angesehen, ein Ort des Rückzugs von den gesellschaftlichen Konflikten, in dem mit der Suggestion allgemeiner Harmonie von ihrer Austragung und ihrer Reflexion abgelenkt wurde. Die Religionswissenschaft hat gezeigt, daß Religionen mehr sind. Sie sind selber aus gesellschaftlichen Konflikten entstanden. In ihnen sind Lösungen historischer Konflikte festgeschrieben worden. Weil diese Formulierungen zur Deutung der Realität im ganzen verallgemeinert wurden, waren sie als Konfliktlösung nicht mehr zu erkennen. Aber die Möglichkeit, sie als solche wiederzuerkennen, konnte niemals ganz aus den Religionen vertrieben werden. Sie zeigte sich nicht zuletzt an den Unstimmigkeiten und Rissen in ihrer Theorie. Diese wurden in der Umbruchsituation des 18. Jahrhunderts als Argumente gegen die Religion - und für die Säkularisierung gebraucht. Damit zerbrach die Einheit der religiösen Theorie. Ein neuer Blick auf ihre historischen Ursprünge wurde möglich, ebenso wie, damit verbunden, ein Blick auf jene Motive im säkularen Bewußtsein, die selbst aus der religiösen Überlieferung stammten. Besonders die prophetischen Motive sind während des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts aus dem institutionellen Zusammenhang in Kultur und Politik ausgewandert. Aber auch die Erbschaft der archaischen Mutterkulte wurde im romantischen 19. Jahrhundert wieder erkennbar. Die in diesem Band gesammelten Vorträge und Aufsätze bemühen sich um den Nachweis, daß auch die gegenwärtigen gesellschaftlichen Spannungen, Enttäuschungen und Hoffnungen ohne Rückgriff auf das kritische, aber auch das Wunsch-Potential in den religiösen Überlieferungen nicht hinreichend zu verstehen sind.

Political philosophy in the English-speaking world has been dominated for more than two decades by various versions of liberal theory, which holds that political inquiry should proceed without reference to religious view. Although a number of philosophers have contested this stance, no one has succeeded in dislodging liberalism from its position of dominance

The most interesting challenges to liberalism have come from those outside of the discipline of philosophy. Sociologists, legal scholars, and religious ethicists have attacked liberalism's embodiment in practice, arguing that liberal practice -- particularly in the United States -- has produced a culture which trivializes religion. This culture, they argue, is at odds with the beliefs and practices of large numbers of citizens.

In the past, disciplinary barriers have limited scholarly exchange among philosophical liberals and their theological, sociological and legal critics. Religion and Contemporary Liberalism makes an important step towards increased dialogue among these scholars. A collection of original papers by philosophers, sociologists, theologians, and legal theorists, this volume will spark considerable debate in philosophy -- debate which will be significant for all of those concerned with the place of religion within a liberal society.

A Frightening Love radically rethinks God and evil. It rejects theodicy and its impersonal conception of reason and morality. Faith survives evil through a miraculous love that resists philosophical rationalization. Authors criticised include Alvin Plantinga, Richard Swinburne, Marilyn McCord Adams, Peter van Inwagen, John Haldane, William Hasker.

This book describes Reformed ecclesiology through the lived faith of the Filipino American Christian diaspora. It proposes a contextual, constructive ecclesiology by engaging with the Presbyterian/Reformed theological tradition's understanding of the ascension of Jesus Christ with the Old Testament book of Habakkuk as a conversation partner.

This volume presents the theory of culture of the Russian-born German Jewish social philosopher David Koigen (1879-1933). Heir to Hermann Cohen's neo-Kantian interpretation of Judaism, he transforms the religion of reason into an ethical Intimitatsreligion. He draws upon a great variety of intellectual currents, among them, Max Scheler's philosophy of values, the historical sociology of Max Weber, the sociology of religion of Emile Durkheim, Ernst Troeltsch and Georg Simmel and American pragmatism. Influenced by his personal experience of marginality in German academia yet the same time unconstrained by the dictates of the German Jewish discourse, Koigen shapes these theoretical strands into an original argument which unfolds along two trajectories: theodicy of culture and ethos. Distinguished from ethics, ethos identifies the non-formal factors that foster a group's sense of collective identity as it adapts to continuous change. From a Jewish perspective, ethos is grounded in the biblical covenant as the paradigm of a social contract and corporate liability. Although the normative content of the covenantal ethos is subject to gradual secularization, its metaphysical and existential assumptions, Koigen argues, continue to inform Jewish self-understanding. The concept of ethos identifies the dialectic of tradition as it shapes Jewish religious consciousness, and, in turn, is shaped by the evolving cultural and axiological sensibilities. In consonance, Jewish identity cannot be reduced to ethnicity or a purely secular culture. Urban develops these fragmentary and inchoate theories into a sociology of religious knowledge and suggests to read Koigen not just as a Jewish sociologist but as the first sociologist of Judaism who proposes to overcome the dogmatic anti-metaphysical stance of European sociology.

This text provides a comparative investigation of the affinities and differences of two of the most dynamic currents in World Buddhism: Zen Buddhism and the Thai Forest Movement. Defying differences in denomination, culture, and historical epochs, these schools revived an unfettered quest for enlightenment and proceeded to independently forge like practices and doctrines. The author examines the teaching gambits and tactics, the methods of practice, the place and story line of teacher biography, and the nature and role of the awakening experience, revealing similar forms deriving from an uncompromising pursuit of awaking, the insistence on self-cultivation, and the preeminent role of the charismatic master. Offering a pertinent review of their encounters with modernism, the book provides a new coherence to these seemingly disparate movements, opening up new avenues for scholars and possibilities for practitioners.

The present study addresses problems of an epistemological nature which hinge on the question of how to define Jewish thought. It will take its start in an ancient question, that of the relationship between Jewish culture, Greek philosophy, and then Greco-Roman (and Christian) thought in connection with the query into the history and genealogy of wisdom and knowledge. Our journey into the history of the denomination 'Jewish philosophy' will include a leg that will lead us to certain declarations of political, moral, and scientific principles, and then on to the birth of what is called philosophia perennis or, in Christian circles, prisca theologia. Our subject of inquiry will thus be the birth of the concept of Jewish philosophy, Jewish theology and Jewish philosophy of religion. A special emphasis will fall on the topic treated in the last part of this study: Jewish scepticism, a theme that involves a philosophical attitude founded on dialectical "enquiry", as the etymology of the Greek word skepsis properly means.

Cattoi and McDaniel present a selection of articles on the role of the body and the spiritual senses--our transfigured channels of sensory perceptions--in the context of spiritual practice. The volume investigates this theme across a variety of different religious traditions, starting from early and medieval Christianity, addressing a number of Eastern traditions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Daoism, and finally touching on some modern forms of spirituality and psychotherapy.