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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Aspects of religions (non-Christian) > Theology > General
This book offers a novel account of grace framed in terms of Bruno
Latour's "principle of irreduction." It thus models an
object-oriented approach to grace, experimentally moving a
traditional Christian understanding of grace out of a top-down,
theistic ontology and into an agent-based, object-oriented
ontology. In the process, it also provides a systematic and
original account of Latour's overall project. The account of grace
offered here redistributes the tasks assigned to science and
religion. Where now the work of science is to bring into focus
objects that are too distant, too resistant, and too transcendent
to be visible, the business of religion is to bring into focus
objects that are too near, too available, and too immanent to be
visible. Where science reveals transcendent objects by correcting
for our nearsightedness, religion reveals immanent objects by
correcting for our farsightedness. Speculative Grace remaps the
meaning of grace and examines the kinds of religious instruments
and practices that, as a result, take center stage.
This text explores what it is like to be part of both the lesbian
and Jewish communities, suggesting ways in which lesbians can
reconcile these seemingly discordant elements of their identity. It
advocates the acceptance of lesbians into the Jewish tradition by
offering new interpretations of the Torah traditionally regarded as
prohibitive of homosexuality. The book counters the millennia of
"Midrashim" (scholarly comment on the Torah) condemning gays and
lesbians, by examining the culture of biblical lawgivers and the
culture of the commentators themselves. By examining passages from
Scripture and by featuring texts that portray Jewish lesbians as
role models in a new cultural canon, the author presents a case for
the integration of the lesbian voice into Jewish experience.
In this commentary, Joshua Berman considers Lamentations as a
literary work that creates meaning for a community in the wake of
tragedy through its repudiation of Zion theology. Drawing from
studies in collective trauma, his volume is the first study of
Lamentations that systematically accounts for the constructed
character of the narrator, a pastoral mentor who engages in a
series of dialogues with a second constructed character, daughter
Zion, who embodies the traumatized community of survivors. In each
chapter, the pastoral mentor speaks to a different religious
typology and a different sub-community of post-destruction Judeans,
working with daughter Zion to reconsider her errant positions and
charting for her a positive way forward to reconnecting with the
Lord. Providing a systematic approach to the careful structure of
each of its chapters, Berman illuminates how biblical writers
offered support to their communities in a way that is still
relevant and appealing to a therapy-conscious contemporary society.
"A Collection of Sufi Rules of Conduct" (Jawami Adab al-Sufiyya)
was written by one of the foremost early masters of Sufism and is
considered as the first work devoted to the description of the way
of life and the customs of the Sufis. It represents an early
attempt to illustrate the conformity of Sufi beliefs and manners
with the Qur'an and the example of the Prophet (Sunna). "A
Collection of Sufi Rules of Conduct" is therefore not only a
pioneering work of ethics and mysticism, it is also a summary of
the views of Sufis up till the eleventh century. It was a major
influence on the development of Sufism from the eleventh century
onwards. The translation by Dr Elena Biagi includes an introduction
that places the author in his historical, literary and religious
context, and a general glossary of Sufi technical terms.
Postcolonial theology has recently emerged as a site of intense
intellectual and political energy and has taken its place in the
interdisciplinary field of postcolonial studies. This volume is
animated by the conviction that postcolonial theology is now ready
for a second, deeper phase of engagement with postcolonial theory,
one that moves beyond the general to the specific. No critic has
been more emblematic of the challenging and contested field of
postcolonial theory than Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. In this
volume, the product of a theological colloquium in which Spivak
herself participated, theologians and biblical scholars engage with
her thought in order to catalyze a diverse range of original
theological and exegetical projects. The volume opens with a
"topography" of postcolonial theology and also includes other
valuable introductory essays. At the center of the collection are
transcriptions of two extended public dialogues with Spivak on
theology and religion in general. A further dozen essays
appropriate Spivak's work for theological and ethical reflection.
The volume is also significant for the larger field of postcolonial
studies in that it is the first to focus centrally on Spivak's
immensely suggestive and vital concept of "planetarity."
Postcolonial theology has recently emerged as a site of intense
intellectual and political energy and has taken its place in the
interdisciplinary field of postcolonial studies. This volume is
animated by the conviction that postcolonial theology is now ready
for a second, deeper phase of engagement with postcolonial theory,
one that moves beyond the general to the specific. No critic has
been more emblematic of the challenging and contested field of
postcolonial theory than Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. In this
volume, the product of a theological colloquium in which Spivak
herself participated, theologians and biblical scholars engage with
her thought in order to catalyze a diverse range of original
theological and exegetical projects. The volume opens with a
"topography" of postcolonial theology and also includes other
valuable introductory essays. At the center of the collection are
transcriptions of two extended public dialogues with Spivak on
theology and religion in general. A further dozen essays
appropriate Spivak's work for theological and ethical reflection.
The volume is also significant for the larger field of postcolonial
studies in that it is the first to focus centrally on Spivak's
immensely suggestive and vital concept of "planetarity."
![Acts (Paperback): Craig S. Keener](//media.loot.co.za/images/x80/242269585425179215.jpg) |
Acts
(Paperback)
Craig S. Keener
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R1,420
R1,150
Discovery Miles 11 500
Save R270 (19%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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As the earliest narrative source for the origins of Christianity,
Acts is of unrivalled importance for understanding early
Christianity and the mission that originally brought it from Judea
and Galilee to gentiles, and even the heart of the Roman Empire.
This volume is an abridged version of Keener's monumental,
four-volume commentary on Acts, the longest and one of the most
thorough engagements with Acts in its ancient setting. Sensitive to
the work's narrative unity, Keener's commentary is especially known
for its direct engagement with the wide range of ancient Jewish and
Greco-Roman sources. The original commentary cited some 45,000
references from ancient extrabiblical sources to shed light on the
Book of Acts. This accessible edition, aimed at students, scholars,
and pastors, makes more widely available the decades of research
that Keener has devoted to one of the key texts of Early
Christianity.
The claim of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel is long
established - and long challenged. Most Jews, and non-Jews, asked
to explain their relationship with the actual physical territory of
Israel, will offer some vague reference to God's promise, or
historical right, or the place as "Holy Land." Even the Bible and
some of its commentaries often present varied and contradictory
perspectives about Israel and the Land. This fact, added to the
confusion that accompanies conflicting theological and political
perceptions, results in the claims and counterclaims that have led
to continuing tension and confrontation among current peoples. In
this book, Dr. Shechter steps forth into the ideological quicksand
that surrounds the entire question of the relationship between God,
the Jewish people, and the Land of Israel. This is a matter that
Christians and Muslims, as well, are deeply preoccupied with as it
relates to their own domains. The author explores in detail the
perplexing issues that flow from the triad of God, Israel, and the
Land. His analyses are rooted in the Biblical and rabbinic texts
themselves, in addition to other scholarly disciplines impinging on
the subject. Among others, the basic questions wrestled within this
work include: -What are the theological and historical prisms
through which the land of Israel is viewed? -What are the
ramifications implicit in the notion that the land was "promised"?
-What does a tradition have in mind when it designates a place -
and Israel's place - as "holy"? -What has all this to do with the
claims, conflicts, and confrontations that roil the Middle East in
our time? A set of pointed questions prompted by the explorations
in the work is included to assist in considering contemporary
implications. This is a book that promises to bring clarity to
issues of great moment - both in the past and in our time.
The claim of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel is long
established - and long challenged. Most Jews, and non-Jews, asked
to explain their relationship with the actual physical territory of
Israel, will offer some vague reference to God's promise, or
historical right, or the place as 'Holy Land.' Even the Bible and
some of its commentaries often present varied and contradictory
perspectives about Israel and the Land. This fact, added to the
confusion that accompanies conflicting theological and political
perceptions, results in the claims and counterclaims that have led
to continuing tension and confrontation among current peoples. In
this book, Dr. Shechter steps forth into the ideological quicksand
that surrounds the entire question of the relationship between God,
the Jewish people, and the Land of Israel. This is a matter that
Christians and Muslims, as well, are deeply preoccupied with as it
relates to their own domains. The author explores in detail the
perplexing issues that flow from the triad of God, Israel, and the
Land. His analyses are rooted in the Biblical and rabbinic texts
themselves, in addition to other scholarly disciplines impinging on
the subject. Among others, the basic questions wrestled within this
work include: -What are the theological and historical prisms
through which the land of Israel is viewed? -What are the
ramifications implicit in the notion that the land was 'promised'?
-What does a tradition have in mind when it designates a place -
and Israel's place - as 'holy'? -What has all this to do with the
claims, conflicts, and confrontations that roil the Middle East in
our time? A set of pointed questions prompted by the explorations
in the work is included to assist in considering contemporary
implications. This is a book that promises to bring clarity to
issues of great moment - both in the past and in our time.
From speculative theology to the exegesis of Aquinas, to
contemporary North American philosophy and Catholic social and
ethical thought, to the thought of Benedict XVI, this work argues
the crucial importance of the proportionate natural end within the
context of grace and supernatural beatitude. Long argues that, in
the effort to avoid naturalism, Henri de Lubac unwittingly
consummated the loss of nature as a normative principle within
theology, both doctrinally and exegetically with respect to the
teaching of Aquinas. The author argues that this constitutes an
understandable but grave error. De Lubac's view of the matter was
adopted and extended by Hans Urs von Balthasar in The Theology of
Karl Barth, in which Balthasar argues that Aquinas could not even
consider pure nature because it was "impossible for him even to
make the conceptual distinction implied by this problem," a view
contradicted by Aquinas's text. Long argues that in The Theology of
Karl Barth, Balthasar's account evacuates nature of its specific
ontological density and treats it as "mere createdness as such," a
kind of dimensionless point terminating the line of grace. Given
the loss of natura within theological method, its recovery requires
philosophic instrumentalities. In its third chapter this book
argues that by reason of its lack of any unified philosophy of
nature or metaphysics, the analytic thought so widespread in
Anglophone circles is merely a partial metaphilosophy and so cannot
replace the role of classical Thomism within theology. The fourth
chapter argues against those who construe affirmation of a
proportionate natural end as equivalent to social Pelagianism or
minimalism in the public square, engaging the work of Jacques
Maritain, Jean Porter, and David Schindler, Sr. In an appendix, the
author examines the early thought of Cardinal Ratzinger / Pope
Benedict XVI, and its development toward the Regensburg Lecture.
This book sets forward a series of interesting and less-explored aspects of Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik's teachings.
These essays delve into the Rav's approach toward understanding biblical figures, his views on emotions and intellect, his appreciation of R. Yehudah ha-Levi, his understanding of medieval history, and the implications for modernity.
The ancient doctrine of negative theology or apophasis-the attempt
to describe God by speaking only of what cannot be said about the
divine perfection and goodness-has taken on new life in the concern
with language and its limits that preoccupies much postmodern
philosophy, theology, and related disciplines. How does this
mystical tradition intersect with the concern with material bodies
that is simultaneously a focus in these areas? This volume pursues
the unlikely conjunction of apophasis and the body, not for the
cachet of the "cutting edge" but rather out of an ethical passion
for the integrity of all creaturely bodies as they are caught up in
various ideological mechanisms-religious, theological, political,
economic-that threaten their dignity and material well-being. The
contributors, a diverse collection of scholars in theology,
philosophy, history, and biblical studies, rethink the relationship
between the concrete tradition of negative theology and apophatic
discourses widely construed. They further endeavor to link these to
the theological theme of incarnation and more general issues of
embodiment, sexuality, and cosmology. Along the way, they engage
and deploy the resources of contextual and liberation theology,
post-structuralism, postcolonialism, process thought, and feminism.
The result not only recasts the nature and possibilities of
theological discourse but explores the possibilities of academic
discussion across and beyond disciplines in concrete engagement
with the well-being of bodies, both organic and inorganic. The
volume interrogates the complex capacities of religious discourse
both to threaten and positively to draw upon the material
well-being of creation.
Rising calls in both the United States and abroad for theologizing
national agendas have renewed examinations about whether liberal
states can accommodate such programs without either endangering
citizens' rights or trivializing religious concerns. Conventional
wisdom suggests that theology is necessarily unfriendly to the
liberal state, but neither philosophical analysis nor empirical
argument has convincingly established that conclusion. Examining
the problem from a variety of perspectives including law,
philosophy, history, political theory, and religious studies, the
essays in Theology and the Soul of the Liberal State suggest the
possibilities for and limits on what theological reflection might
contribute to liberal polities across the globe. Theology and the
Soul of the Liberal State develops these issues under five
headings. Part One explores "The Nature of Religious Argument" as
it can inflect discussions of public policy, political theory,
jurisprudence, and education. Part Two, "Theologies of the
Marketplace," notes that theology can by turns be highly critical,
neutral, or even inordinately supportive of market operations. Part
Three, "European Perspectives," reviews and develops arguments from
Abraham Kuyper, Karl Barth, and French post-modernists concerning
how one might integrate theological discourse into the public
sphere. Part Four offers Israel, Pakistan and Tibet as "Asian
Perspectives" on how theology may comport with liberalism in
recently created states (or, in the last case, a diasporic
government-in-exile) where powerful religious constituencies make
"secular" civil action extremely problematic. Finally, Part V,
"Religion and Terror," probes the vexed relationship between
conceptions of divine and human justice, where the imperatives of
theology and state confront each other most nakedly. Collectively,
Theology and the Soul of the Liberal State suggests that the
liberal state cannot keep theology out of public discourse and may
even benefit from its intervention,
Baptism offers the distinctive practice of Christian initiation,
rooted in Jesus' own baptism, ministry, death, and resurrection.
Too often, however, people with intellectual disabilities are
excluded from this core Christian practice and so barred from full
inclusion in the life of discipleship. How can the work of the
Triune God in baptism renew Christian imagination toward an embrace
of baptismal identities and vocations among disabled Christians? In
Becoming the Baptized Body Sarah Barton explores how baptismal
theologies and practices shape Christian imagination, identity, and
community. Privileging perspectives informed by disability
experience through theological qualitative research, Becoming the
Baptized Body demonstrates how theology done together can
expansively enliven imagination around baptismal practices and how
they intersect with the human experience of disability. Through a
lively tapestry of stories, theological insights, and partnerships
with Christians who experience intellectual disability, Barton
resists theological abstraction and engages and expands the field
of disability theology. With a methodological commitment to
inclusive research and a focus on ecclesial practice, Barton brings
theologians of disability, biblical accounts of baptism, baptismal
liturgies, and theological voices from across the ecumenical
spectrum in conversation with Christians shaped by intellectual
disability. Becoming the Baptized Body explores how the real-world
experiences of disabled Christians enrich and expand received
Christian theological traditions and illustrates avenues for
vibrant participation and formation for all believers.
This book seeks to construct a Muslim-Christian theological
discourse on creation and humanity, which could help adherents of
both faiths work together to preserve our planet, bring justice to
its most needy inhabitants and contribute to peacebuilding in areas
of conflict. Drawing from the disciplines of theology, philosophy,
ethics, hermeneutics, critical theory and the social sciences, its
premise is that theology is always developed in particular
situations. A first part explores the global context of
postmodernity (the post-Cold War world dominated by a neoliberal
capitalist system) and the influential turn away from the modern
Cartesian view of the autonomous, disembodied self, to a self
defined in discourse, community and culture (postmodernism). A
second part traces the "career" of Q. 2:30 (Adam's God-mandated
trusteeship), first in Islamic commentaries in the classical period
and then in the writings of Muslim scholars in the modern and
postmodern periods. The concept of human trusteeship under God is
also studied over time in Christian and Jewish writers. The third
part, building on the previous data, draws together the essential
elements for a Muslim-Christian theology of human trusteeship.
![Hasidism - A New History (Hardcover): David Biale, David Assaf, Benjamin Brown, Uriel Gellman, Samuel Heilman, Moshe Rosman](//media.loot.co.za/images/x80/159273523552179215.jpg) |
Hasidism
- A New History
(Hardcover)
David Biale, David Assaf, Benjamin Brown, Uriel Gellman, Samuel Heilman, …
|
R1,320
R1,121
Discovery Miles 11 210
Save R199 (15%)
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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The first comprehensive history of the pietistic movement that
shaped modern Judaism This is the first comprehensive history of
the pietistic movement that shaped modern Judaism. The book's
unique blend of intellectual, religious, and social history offers
perspectives on the movement's leaders as well as its followers,
and demonstrates that, far from being a throwback to the Middle
Ages, Hasidism is a product of modernity that forged its identity
as a radical alternative to the secular world. Hasidism originated
in southeastern Poland, in mystical circles centered on the figure
of Israel Baal Shem Tov, but it was only after his death in 1760
that a movement began to spread. Challenging the notion that
Hasidism ceased to be a creative movement after the eighteenth
century, this book argues that its first golden age was in the
nineteenth century, when it conquered new territory, won a mass
following, and became a mainstay of Jewish Orthodoxy. World War I,
the Russian Revolution, and the Holocaust decimated eastern
European Hasidism. But following World War II, the movement enjoyed
a second golden age, growing exponentially. Today, it is witnessing
a remarkable renaissance in Israel, the United States, and other
countries around the world. Written by an international team of
scholars, Hasidism is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand
this vibrant and influential modern Jewish movement.
Including more than 200 true, thought-provoking stories, this
inspirational collection provides a fascinating glimpse into the
world of unexplained phenomena and survival against overwhelming
odds. A wide range of topics and circumstances is covered,
including angelic interventions, surviving airplane crashes and
cataclysmic natural disasters, medical miracles, amazing sea
rescues, miracles on the highway, and near-death experiences.
Remarkable stories include how a sky diver plummeted more than
4,000 feet and walked away with only a cut, how a mother and her
children ride out a tornado atop an airborne mattress and survive,
and how a group of dolphins rescued a swimmer from a shark attack.
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