The hope in exploring this strange paradox further is that it may mediate between Christian -- and perhaps other -- faith on the one hand, and contemporary humanism on the other. Such a "meeting of minds" is much to be desired. For, in their different ways, the two bring together a sense of human liability to be responsible, and responsive, to that which is both in our power and beyond our mercy. To say that "truth is in the care of faith" is to recognize that "faith has to be the care of truth," just as "history" lies very much in the hand of historians (for good or ill) and historians are tributary to "history" as obligation and trust.

This whole approach to the truth/faith/civilization equation may seem dubious to pious minds inured to divine "omnipotence." A more lively and penetrating sense of things divinely human and humanly divine is pursued in this book through ten themes central to religion -- language, law, love, truth, tribe, selfhood, nature, power, time and worship. A final chapter clinches the distinctive case for Christianity as "divine risk." The argument is illuminated by examples from different religions, and from literature, poetry and the humanities.

Does life have meaning if one rejects belief in God? This book responds affirmatively to that question. Paul Kurtz, America's leading secular humanist, provides a powerful defense of the humanist alternative, rejecting both religious spirituality and nihilism. In this inspirational book, Kurtz outlines the basic virtues of the secular humanist outlook. These virtues include "courage," not simply to be or to survive, but to overcome and "become"; that is, to fulfill our highest aspirations and ideals in the face of obstacles. The two other virtues Kurtz identifies are "cognition" (reason and science in establishing truth) and "moral caring" (compassion and benevolence in our relationships with others.) Kurtz offers an optimistic appraisal of the human prospect and outlines a philosophy both for the individual and the global community.

"In this massive, meticulously researched work Trinkaus makes a major contribution to our understanding of the Italian humanists and the Christian Renaissance in Italy. . . . The author argues persuasively that the Italian humanists drew their inspiration more from the church fathers than from the pagan ancients. . . . [This is] the most comprehensive and most important study of Italian humanism to appear in English. It is a mine of information, offering, among other things, detailed analyses of texts which have been ignored even by Italian scholars." -Library Journal

In Versions of Deconversion John Barbour examines the work of a broad selection of authors in order to discover the reasons for their loss of faith and to analyze the ways in which they have interpreted that loss. For some the experience of deconversion led to another religious faith, some turned to atheism or agnosticism, and others used deconversion as a metaphor or analogy to interpret an experience of personal transformation. The loss of faith is closely related to such vital ethical and theological concerns as the role of conscience, the assessment of religious communities, the dialectical relationship between faith and doubt, and the struggle to reconcile faith with intellectual and moral integrity. This book shows the persistence and the vitality of the theme of deconversion in autobiography, and it demonstrates how the literary form and structure of autobiography are shaped by ethical critique and religious reflection. Versions of Deconversion should appeal at once to scholars in the fields of religious studies and theology who are concerned with narrative texts, to literary critics and specialists on autobiography, and to a wider audience interested in the ethical and religious significance of autobiography.

Multi-prizewinning and internationally acclaimed Yan Lianke -- 'China's most controversial novelist' (New Yorker) -- returns with a campus novel like no other following a young Buddhist as she journeys through worldly temptation To tell the truth, religious faith is really just a matter of believing stories. The world is governed by stories, and it is for the sake of stories that everyone lives on this earth. Yahui is a young Buddhist at university. But this is no ordinary university. It is populated by every faith in China: Buddhists, Daoists, Catholics, Protestants and Muslims who jostle alongside one another in the corridors of learning, and whose deities are never far from the classroom. Her days are measured out making elaborate religious papercuts, taking part in highly charged tug-of-war competitions between the faiths and trying to resist the daily temptation to return to secular life and abandon the ascetic ideals that are her calling. Everything seems to dangle by a thread. But when she meets a Daoist student called Mingzheng, an inexorable romance of mythic proportions takes hold of her. In this profoundly otherworldly novel, Chinese master Yan Lianke remakes the campus novel in typically visionary fashion, dropping readers into an allegorical world ostensibly far from our own, but which reflects our own questions and struggles right back at us. ** Beautiful edition illustrated throughout with beautiful original papercuts ** 'One of China's greatest living authors' Guardian 'His talent cannot be ignored' New York Times 'China's foremost literary satirist' Financial Times

The book that launched the virtual reality debate is back in print with four additional appendices. Which is most fundamental--matter, energy or information? Dukes takes readers on a voyage of discovery and nothing will ever be the same. (Philosophy)

Comprehending Cults, Second Edition, provides a sociological interpretation of the phenomenon of new religious movements. While the author does not offer an apologia for cults--in either a religious or a sociological sense--he does attempt to replace suspicion and misinformation with a greater knowledge of the facts (as best we know them) and a measure of sympathetic understanding.
Completely revised and updated in this second edition, the book examines all aspects of cults, while striving to delineate the very real limits of our knowledge. In addition to dealing with the troublesome aspects of the subject, including issues of violence, sexuality, and brainwashing, the author also considers the possibility that new religious movements are a source of spiritual satisfaction to their members. Offering up-to-date social science research about contemporary religious cults, Comprehending Cults, Second Edition, is ideal for undergraduate sociology of religion and new religious movements courses.

This three-volume work comprises over eighty essays surveying the history of Scottish theology from the early middle ages onwards. Written by an international team of scholars, the collection provides the most comprehensive review yet of the theological movements, figures, and themes that have shaped Scottish culture and exercised a significant influence in other parts of the world. Attention is given to different traditions and to the dispersion of Scottish theology through exile, migration, and missionary activity. The volumes present in diachronic perspective the theologies that have flourished in Scotland from early monasticism until the end of the twentieth century. The History of Scottish Theology, Volume I covers the period from the appearance of Christianity around the time of Columba to the era of Reformed Orthodoxy in the seventeenth century. Volume II begins with the early Enlightenment and concludes in late Victorian Scotland. Volume III explores the 'long twentieth century'. Recurrent themes and challenges are assessed, but also new currents and theological movements that arose through Renaissance humanism, Reformation teaching, federal theology, the Scottish Enlightenment, evangelicalism, mission, biblical criticism, idealist philosophy, dialectical theology, and existentialism. Chapters also consider the Scots Catholic colleges in Europe, Gaelic women writers, philosophical scepticism, the dialogue with science, and the reception of theology in liturgy, hymnody, art, literature, architecture, and stained glass. Contributors also discuss the treatment of theological themes in Scottish literature.

This is not a book that provides a new integrated theory of religious change in modern societies, but rather one that develops theoretical elements that contribute to the understanding of some contemporary religious developments. Most of the approaches in sociology of religion are prone to emphasise either processes of religious decline or of religious upswing. For example, secularization theory usually includes a couple of relevant factors-such as functional differentiation, economic affluence or social equality-in order to account for religious change. However, the result of such a theory's empirical analyses seems to be certain in advance, namely that the social relevance of religion is decreasing. In contrast, the religious market model devised by sociologists of religion in the US is inclined to detect everywhere processes of religious upsurge. Religion and Modernity: An International Comparison avoids a purely theoretically based perspective on religious changes. For this reason, Detlef Pollack and Gergely Rosta do not begin with theoretical propositions but with questions. The authors raise the question of how the social significance of religion in its various facets has changed in modern societies, and explain what factors and conditions have contributed to these changes.

This collection of essays presents groundbreaking work from an interdisciplinary group of leading theorists and scholars representing the fields of history, philosophy, political science, sociology, and anthropology. The volume will introduce readers to some of the most compelling new conceptual and theoretical understandings of secularism and the secular, while also examining socio-political trends involving the relationship between the religious and the secular from a variety of locations across the globe.
In recent decades, the public has become increasingly aware of the important role religious commitments play in the cultural, social, and political dynamics of domestic and world affairs. This so called ''resurgence'' of religion in the public sphere has elicited a wide array of responses, including vehement opposition to the very idea that religious reasons should ever have a right to expression in public political debate. The current global landscape forces scholars to reconsider not only once predominant understandings of secularization, but also the definition and implications of secular assumptions and secularist positions. The notion that there is no singular secularism, but rather a range of multiple secularisms, is one of many emerging efforts to reconceptualize the meanings of religion and the secular.
Rethinking Secularism surveys these efforts and helps to reframe discussions of religion in the social sciences by drawing attention to the central issue of how ''the secular'' is constituted and understood. It provides valuable insight into how new understandings of secularism and religion shape analytic perspectives in the social sciences, politics, and international affairs.

Eric Bain-Selbo argues that the study of religion—from philosophers to psychologists, and historians of religion to sociologists—has separated out the “ends” or goals of religion and thus created the conditions by which institutional religion is increasingly irrelevant in contemporary Western culture. There is ample evidence that institutional religion is in trouble, and little evidence that it will strengthen in the future, giving some reason to believe that we are in the process of seeing the end of religion. At the same time, various cultural practices have met in the past and continue to meet today certain fundamental human needs—needs that we might identify as religious that now are being fulfilled through what Bain-Selbo calls the “religion of culture.” The End(s) of Religion traces the way that the very study of religion has led to institutional religion being viewed as just one human institution that can address our particular “religious” needs rather than the sole institution to do so. In turn, ultimately we can begin to see how other institutions or forms of culture can function to serve these same needs or “ends.”

Jodocus Badius Ascensius (1462-1535) was a scholar and printer who played a central role in the flourishing of humanism and print culture in the French Renaissance. In a career spanning four decades, he was involved with the print publication of something approaching one thousand editions. He was known for the 'familiar' commentaries he wrote and published as introductions to the major authors of Latin (and, less frequently, Greek) antiquity, as well as on texts by medieval and contemporary authors. His commentaries and prefaces document the early stages of French humanism, and his texts played a major role in forming the minds of future generations. This book provides an account of Badius's contributions to pedagogy, scholarship, printing and humanist culture. Its main focus is on Latin language commentaries on classical texts. It examines Badius's multiple roles in the light of changing conceptions of textual culture during the Renaissance. It also explores the wider context of the communities with which Badius cultivated relationships: scholars and printers, figures from religious orders, the university and officialdom. It considers the readerships for which Badius produced texts in France, England, Scotland, the Low Countries, and beyond. It explores the ways in which humanists understood the circulation of knowledge in terms of economy and commerce, and their conceptualisations of commentary as a site of cultural mediation.

Jeanne Morefield synthesizes Palestinian American theorist and cultural critic Edward Said's critical humanism as a conceptual approach for addressing crises in contemporary global politics that demands reflection about historical context and the nature of the collective public before considering solutions to perceived problems. Said's approach to humanistic inquiry speaks directly to the way scholars of international ethics who speak from a liberal internationalist perspective react to global crises by fixating on the international status quo, often advocating global order for global order's sake. In the process, Said's humanism transforms the very idea of what it means to theorize global ethics in a postcolonial age and offers a clarifying way to navigate through foreign policy discussions with conflicting interest groups and ideologies.

In Africa, the twenty-first century began with new challenges surrounding and regarding philosophical discourses. Questions of economic and political liberation, the displacement of populations and the process of urbanization present ongoing challenges, linked to problems such as endemic diseases and famine, the restructure of the traditional family, gender and the position of women, the transmission of culture from past to future generations. Changes in labor relations resulting from introduction of financial speculation, cutting edge technologies, and differential access to digital and older cultural forms have placed real demands on Africans and Africanists working in philosophy. This volume explores the ways in which African philosophies express "transitional acts," those acts by which thought interacts with history as it is being made and by which it assures its own renewal in proposing provisional solutions to historical problems. A transitional act combines both the audacity of confrontation and the novelty of creation, prudence in the face of risks and anticipation in the face of the unexpected. Influential and emerging thinkers from both sides of the Atlantic consider this dual activity in the realm of criticism and imagination, public spaces in Africa, and the relationship between historical politics and historical poetics.

This worldwide study examines how religion gets into theme parks - as mission, as an aspect of culture, as fable, and by chance. Gods and Rollercoasters analyses religion in theme parks, looking at how it relates to modernism, popular culture, right-wing politics, nationalism, and the rise of the global middle class. Crispin Paine argues that religion has discovered a major new means of expression through theme parks. From the reconstruction of Biblical Jerusalem at the Holy Land Experience in Orlando, through the world of Chinese mythology at Haw Par Villa in Singapore, to the great temple/theme park Akshardham in New Delhi, this book shows how people are encountering and experiencing religion in the context of fun, thrills and leisure time. Drawing on examples from six of the seven continents, and exploring religious traditions including Christianity, Daoism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam, Gods and Rollercoasters provides a significant contribution to the study of religion, sociology, anthropology, and popular culture.

Global Justice and Our Epochal Mind explores the mind of our epoch, defined as the period since the Nuremberg Trial and the establishment of the United Nations in 1945. Xunwu Chen examines four defining ideas of this epoch-global justice, cosmopolitanism, crimes against humanity, and cultural toleration-as well as the structural relationships among these ideas. Chen argues that the mind of our epoch is essentially the mind of humanity. Its world view, horizon, standpoint, norms, standards, and vocabularies are of humanity, by humanity, and for humanity, and all are embodied in human institutions and practices throughout the globe. Meanwhile, our epochal mind has a dialectical relationship with particular cultures bearing normative force. As a metaphysical subjectivity and substance, humanity is the source of all human values in our epoch and defines what can and should be human values and virtues. Humankind, therefore, are a people with socio-political and legal sovereignty, sharing a common fate. This novel study brings a cross-cultural approach and will be of great interest to students and scholars of philosophy, political science, sociology, and the humanities more broadly.

Taking the long view of conflicts between truth and political powerWhat role does truth play in government? In context of recent political discourse around the globe and especially in the United States it is easy to believe that truth, in the form of indisputable facts, is a matter of debate. But it's also important to remember that since ancient times, every religious and philosophical tradition has wrestled with this question. In this volume, scholars representing ten traditions Western and Eastern, religious and secular address the nature of truth and its role in government. Among the questions they address: When is deception permissible, or even a good thing? What remedies are necessary and useful when governments fail in their responsibilities to be truthful? The authors consider the relationship between truth and governance in democracies, but also in non-democratic regimes. Although democracy is distinctive in requiring truth as a fundamental basis for governing, non-democratic forms of government also cannot do without truth entirely. If ministers cannot give candid advice to rulers, the government's policies are likely to proceed on false premises and therefore fail. If rulers do not speak truthfully to their people, trust will erode. Each author in this book addresses a common set of issues: the nature of truth; the morality of truth-telling; the nature of government, which shapes each tradition's understanding of the relationship between governance and truth; the legitimacy and limits of regulating speech; and remedies when truth becomes divorced from governance. Truth and Governance will open readers' eyes to the variety of possible approaches to the relationship between truth and governance. Readers will find views they thought self-evident challenged and will come away with a greater understanding of the importance of truth and truth-telling, and of how to counter deliberate deception.

Although individual parents face different issues, Sonya Charles believes most parents want their children to be good people who are happy in their adult lives. Parents and Virtues: An Analysis of Moral Development and Parental Virtue starts from the question of how parents can raise their child to be a moral and flourishing person. At first glance, readers might think this question is better left to psychologists rather than philosophers. The author proposes that Aristotle's ethical theory (known as virtue theory) has much to say on this issue. Aristotle asks how we become moral people and how that relates to leading a good life. In other words, his motivating questions are very similar to the goals parents have for their children. The first part of this book details what the basic components of Aristotle's theory can tell us about the project of parenting. In the second part, the focus shifts to consider some issues that present potential moral dilemmas for parents and discuss whether there are specific virtues we may want to use to guide parental actions. Parents and Virtues will be of particular value to scholars and students who work on the ethics of parenthood, virtue theory, and bioethics.

In this book, Professor Ramin Jahanbegloo elucidates the central concepts in the moral and political thought of Martin Luther King, Jr., bringing out the subtlety, potency, and universal importance of his concepts of Agape love and non-violence, the Beloved Community and revolution of values, and his view of the relation between justice and compassion in politics. King's political philosophy integrates the ethical, the moral and the spiritual into a political way of being that is not only best suited for the American society, but also for any society in quest of an inclusive democracy. Jahanbegloo's account of King's moral and political philosophy demands those of us confronted by the challenges of today's world to have a fresh look at the pragmatic and non-utopian thoughts of one of the prophetic voices of twentieth century.