In a diverse and innovative selection of new essays by cutting-edge theologians and philosophers, Suffering Religion examines one of the most primitive but challenging questions to define human experience - why do we suffer? As a theme uniting very different religious and cultural traditions, the problem of suffering addresses issues of passivity, the vulnerability of embodiment, the generosity of love and the complexity of gendered desire. Interdisciplinary studies bring different kinds of interpretations to meet and enrich each other. Can the notion of goodness retain meaning in the face of real affliction, or is pain itself in conflict with meaning?
Themes covered include:
*philosophys own failure to treat suffering seriously, with special reference to the Jewish tradition
*Martin Bubers celebrated interpretations of scriptural suffering
*suffering in Kristevan psychoanalysis, focusing on the Christian theology of the cross
*the pain of childbirth in a home setting as a religiously significant choice
*Gods primal suffering in the kabbalistic tradition
*Incarnation as a gracious willingness to suffer.

Scholar, theologian and philosopher, Martin Buber is one of the twentieth century's most influential thinkers. He believed that the deepest reality of human life lies in the relationship between one being and another. Between Man and Man is the classic work where he puts this belief into practice, applying it to the concrete problems of contemporary society. Here he tackles subjects as varied as religious ethics, social philosophy, marriage, education, psychology and art. Including some of his most famous writings, such as the masterful 'What is Man?', this enlightening work challenges each reader to reassess their encounter with the world that surrounds them.

`A graceful, refreshing and enlightening book, applied philosophy that is relevant, timely and metaphysical in the best sense.' - New York Times Book Review

'Midgley is one of the most acute and penetrating voices in current moral philosophy. Her great gift is clarity, both of thought and, especially, of expression. To follow her reasoning is like watching a ballet dancer walking in the street: there is a litheness, a gracefulness, an ease of articulation, which attest to years of learning lightly worn.' - John Banville, Irish Times

When After Virtue first appeared in 1981, it was recognized as a significant and potentially controversial critique of contemporary moral philosophy. Newsweek called it "a stunning new study of ethics by one of the foremost moral philosophers in the English-speaking world." Since that time, the book has been translated into more than fifteen foreign languages and has sold over one hundred thousand copies. Now, twenty-five years later, the University of Notre Dame Press is pleased to release the third edition of After Virtue, which includes a new prologue "After Virtue after a Quarter of a Century." In this classic work, Alasdair MacIntyre examines the historical and conceptual roots of the idea of virtue, diagnoses the reasons for its absence in personal and public life, and offers a tentative proposal for its recovery. While the individual chapters are wide-ranging, once pieced together they comprise a penetrating and focused argument about the price of modernity. In the Third Edition prologue, MacIntyre revisits the central theses of the book and concludes that although he has learned a great deal and has supplemented and refined his theses and arguments in other works, he has "as yet found no reason for abandoning the major contentions" of this book. While he recognizes that his conception of human beings as virtuous or vicious needed not only a metaphysical but also a biological grounding, ultimately he remains "committed to the thesis that it is only from the standpoint of a very different tradition, one whose beliefs and presuppositions were articulated in their classical form by Aristotle, that we can understand both the genesis and the predicament of moral modernity."

Seyyed Hossein Nasr, a Persian Sufist is the subject of volume 28 in the "Library of Living Philosophers" series. As in the other volumes of the series, the subject discusses his life and philosophical development in an intellectual autobiography. This is followed by 33 critical essays by various scholars and Nasr's replies to each of them. Nasr has been influential in the fields of comparative religion, theology and Islamic studies, as well as philosophy and comparative philosophy. He is also known for his writings on the history of art, the history of science and Sufism (Islamic Mysticism).

Ontology and Providence in Creation critically examines a particular Leibnizean inspired understanding of God's creation of the world and proposes that a different understanding should be adopted. The Leibnizean argument proposes that God's understanding encompassed a host of possible worlds, only one of which he actualized. This proposition is the current orthodoxy when philosopher and theologians talk about the philosophical understanding of creation. Mark Robson argues that this commits the Leibnizean to the notion that possibility is determinate. He proposes that this understanding of creation does not do justice to the doctrine that God created the world out of nothing. Instead of possible worlds, Robson argues that we should understand possibility as indeterminate. There are no things in possibility, hence God created out of nothing. He examines how this conception of possibility is held by C.S. Peirce and how it was developed by Charles Hartshorne. Robson contends that not only does the indeterminate understanding of possibility take seriously the nothing of ex nihilo, but that it also offers a new solution to the problem of evil.

A Theology of the Sublime is the first major response to the influential and controversial series, Radical Orthodoxy.
Clayton Crockett develops a constructive radical theology from the philosophy of Immanuel Kant - a philosophy attacked by Radical Orthodoxy. Drawing upon the insights of such continental philosophers as Heidegger, Derrida, Lyotard and Deleuze, Clayton Crockett shows how existential notions of self, time and imagination are inter-related in Kantian thinking, and demonstrates their importance for theology. A Theology of the Sublime is a challenging and compelling argument for Kant's relevance to postmodern philosophy and contemporary theology. It raises critical questions about the nature and meaning of current theological thinking.

Contents:
Herman, A L, Indian Theodicy:Samkara and Ramanuja on Brahmasutrabhasya II, Philosophy East and West 21 [1971]
Biderman, Shlomo, A 'Constitutive' God - a An Indian Suggestion, Philosophy East and West 32 [1982]
Nagel, Bruno M I, Untiy and Contradiction: Some Arguments in Utpaladeva and Abhinavagupta for the evidence of the self as Siva, Philosophy East and West 45 [1995]
Lipner, J J, The World as God's 'Body': In Pursuit of Dialogue with Ramanuja, Religous Studies 20 [1984]
Betty, L Stafford, A Death-Blow to Sankara's Non-Dualism?, Religous Studies 20 [1976]
Bilimoria, Purosottama, Hindu Doubts About God: Towards a Mimamsa Deconstruction, International Philosophical Quarterly 30 [1990]
Hayes, Richard P, Principled Atheism in the Buddhist Scholastic Tradition, Journal of Indian Philosophy 16 [1988]
Griffiths, Paul J, Buddha and God: a Contrastive Study in Maximal Goodness, Journal of Religion 69 [1989]
Taber, John, Reason, Revelation and Idealism in Sankara's Vedanta, Journal of Indian Philosophy 9 [1981]
Hayes, Richard P, The Question of Doctrinalism in the Buddhist Epistemologists, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 52 [1983]
Perrett, Roy W, Rebirth, Religous Studies 23 [1987]
Potter, Karl H, The Naturalistic Principle of Karma, Philosophy East and West 14 [1964]
Deutsch, Eliot, Karma as a 'Convenient Fiction' in the Advaita Vedanta, Philosophy East and West 15 [1965]
Griffiths, Paul J, Notes Towards a Critique of Buddhist Karmic Theory, Religous Studies 18 [1982]
Forrest, Peter, Inherited responsibility, karma and Original Sin, Sophia 33 [1994]
Biderman, Shlomo, Religion and Imperatives, eligous Traditions 4 [1981]
Perrett, Roy W, Religion and Politics in India: Some Philosophical Perspectives, Religous Studies 33 [1997]
McDermott, A C S, Towards A Pragmatics of Mantra Recitation, Journal of Indian Philosophy, 3 [1975]
Staal, Frits, The Meaninglessness of Ritual, Numen 26 [1979]
Smart, Ninian, Analysis of the Religious Factors in Indian Metaphysics, Doctrine and Argument in Indian Philosophy [London:George Allen & Unwin, 1964]
Krishna, Daya, Three Myths about Indian Philosophy, Diogenes 55 [1966]

All arts and sciences, in their own way, ultimately try to come to grips with reality. What sets philosophy, theology and religion apart is that they grapple with ultimate reality. Over the decades spanned by John Hick's life, in the course of this grappling (reminiscent of Jacob's nocturnal encounter with the angel) philosophy became analytic, theology dialogical and religion comparative along one line of development. In these essays, written in honour of Professor Hick, leading world scholars in these fields share their most recent insights. They are, so to speak, postcards from the cutting edge.

The Jewish Philosophy Reader is the first comprehensive anthology of classic writings on Jewish philosophy from the Bible to the present. Complementing the History of Jewish Philosophy, the Reader is divided into four parts:
* Foundations and First Principles
* Medieval and Renaissance Jewish Philosophy
* Modern Jewish Thought
* Contemporary Jewish philosophy

eBook available with sample pages: PB:0415168600

A classic of Christian apologetics, this 1865 spiritual biography of the vicar who stunned the Church of England when he abandoned it for Roman Catholicism plumbs the depths of the faith that Catholicism inspires. Structured as a response to one of his greatest public critics, it remains a beloved work to this day. First published in the mid 19th century, this is a replica of the 1908 edition, and features the authors thoughts o his religions opinions throughout his life as well as sermons and other addresses and correspondence with other clergy and religious philosophers. British theologian JOHN HENRY CARDINAL NEWMAN (1801-1890)-a leading figure in both the Church of England and, after his conversion, the Roman Catholic Church-was known as "The Father of the Second Vatican Council." His Parochial and Plain Sermons (1834-42) is considered the best collection of sermons in the English language. He is also the author of A Grammar of Assent (1870).

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Many people still believe in life after death, but modern institutions operate as though this were the only world - eternity is now eclipsed from view in society and even in the church. This book carefully observes the eclipse - what caused it, how full is it, what are its consequences, will it last? How significant is recent interest in near-death experiences and reincarnation?

Traditionally, religious belief has in the philosophy of religion been understood along more or less epistemological lines. Love of a God of Love develops another understanding of belief, where the moral concept of love is central. In this context, what is distinctive about the concept of love is that it is both the "what" and the "how" of belief: for the one who loves a God of love, the concept of love characterizes both the content side and the act side of the belief. In that respect, this understanding of religious belief makes it possible to avoid certain formalist difficulties, arising when the "what" and the "how" of belief are sharply distinguished.

This book critically examines the case for and against the belief in personal survival of bodily death. It discusses key philosophical questions. How could a discarnate individual be identified as a person who was once alive? What is the relationship between minds and their brains? Is a 'next world' conceivable? The book also examines classic arguments for the immortality of the soul, and focuses on types of prima facie evidence of survival: near-death experiences, apparitions, mediumistic communications, and ostensible reincarnation cases.

The book addresses academically the major aspects of Chinese religion and philosophy, designated as the doctrine of being internal sage and external king. The perspective applied is the integration between western and Chinese scholarship and English readers may gain an easy and interesting access to Chinese intellectual tradition, distinctive itself in a harmony between being holy and secular in any mundane human being to the western tradition of "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." By this contrast the intellectual charms and spiritual merits of Chinese tradition will be better appreciated, hence conducive to the much anticipated dialogues between western and eastern civilizations at this globalized yet conflicted world. "

C. Stephen Evans explains and defends Kierkegaard's account of moral obligations as rooted in God's commands, the fundamental command being You shall love your neighbour as yourself'. The work will be of interest not only to those interested in Kierkegaard, but also to those interested in the relation between ethics and religion, especially questions about whether morality can or must have a religious foundation. As well as providing a comprehensive reading of Kierkegaard as an ethical thinker, Evans puts him into conversation with contemporary moral theorists. Kierkegaard's divine command theory is shown to be an account that safeguards human flourishing, as well as protecting the proper relations between religion and state in a pluralistic society.

Should psychology try to explain religion or try to understand it? Pioneers in psychology like Sigmund Freud and William James took opposing views on the matter, and it has been a hotly debated issue ever since. While psychology has been used in the past to attack religion, recent psychological findings have been more sympathetic to matters of faith. How should we understand their relationship today?
In "Psychology and Religion," Michael Argyle, one of the world's most famous experimental psychologists, provides a comprehensive and accessible survey of what psychologists know about religion--and what they don't. Offering fascinating and surprising insights into people and their religious worlds, Argyle examines the results of psychology's study of religion--including those of his own important experiments--and explores a wide range of topics such as: the importance of religion in the works of Freud, Jung and James; the proven effects of religion on the behavior of individuals and groups; how psychologists study religious activities like prayer, worship and ritual; and how psychologists have revealed the significance of change in religion, particularly in understanding the impact of new religious movements.

How and why should hope play a key role in a twenty-first century democratic politics?
Alan Mittleman offers a philosophical exploration of the theme, contending that a modern construction of hope as an emotion is deficient. He revives the medieval understanding of hope as a virtue, reconstructing this in a contemporary philosophical idiom. In this framework, hope is less a spontaneous reaction than it is a choice against despair; a decision to live with confidence and expectation, based on a rational assessment of possibility and a faith in the underlying goodness of life.
In cultures shaped by biblical teaching, hope is thought praiseworthy. Mittleman explores the religious origins of the concept of hope in the Hebrew Scriptures, New Testament, rabbinic literature and Augustine. He traces the roots of both the praise of hope, in Jewish and Christian thought, and the criticism of hope in Greco-Roman thought and in the tradition of philosophical pessimism. Arguing on behalf of a straightened, sober form of hope, he relates hope-as-a-virtue to the tasks of democratic citizenship. Without diminishing the wisdom found in tragedy, a strong argument emerges in favour of hope as a way of taking responsibility for the world. Drawing on insights from scriptural and classical texts, philosophers, and theologians - ancient and modern, Mittleman builds a compelling case for placing hope at the centre of democratic political systems.

This encyclopedia provides a synopsis of the lives and legacies of 200 men and women who have "changed the world." These individuals have developed, extended, or exemplified ideas fundamental to the way human beings perceive the meaning and purpose of their own lives and of their societies. Some have challenged prevailing convictions and worked for immediate change during their lifetimes; others have proposed new modes of thinking that have flourished only after their passing. 4

In May 1998, a distinguished group of philosophers met in Munich to discuss the rationality of theism. This volume is a collection of the papers read at that conference. While in recent years the rationality of theistic belief has been widely discussed, the Munich conference was an event of some moment in the history of philosophical dialogue: for the first time German- and English-speaking philosophers of religion, representatives of both the Continental and the Anglo-Saxon traditions, joined together to grapple with a common philosophical theme. This multiplicity of perspectives brought a unique richness to the analysis of rationality that no one tradition by itself could provide. Readers will find that richness displayed in the pages of this book. Professional philosophers will find here a great deal to stimulate and challenge them; but graduate students, capable undergraduates, and all others with a serious interest in the philosophy of religion will be well rewarded for their efforts to come to grips with these thought-provoking papers.