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Books > Religion & Spirituality > General > Philosophy of religion > General
Why did science emerge in the West and how did scientific values
come to be regarded as the yardstick for all other forms of
knowledge? Stephen Gaukroger shows just how bitterly the cognitive
and cultural standing of science was contested in its early
development. Rejecting the traditional picture of secularization,
he argues that science in the seventeenth century emerged not in
opposition to religion but rather was in many respects driven by
it. Moreover, science did not present a unified picture of nature
but was an unstable field of different, often locally successful
but just as often incompatible, programmes. To complicate matters,
much depended on attempts to reshape the persona of the natural
philosopher, and distinctive new notions of objectivity and
impartiality were imported into natural philosophy, changing its
character radically by redefining the qualities of its
practitioners. The West's sense of itself, its relation to its
past, and its sense of its future, have been profoundly altered
since the seventeenth century, as cognitive values generally have
gradually come to be shaped around scientific ones. Science has not
merely brought a new set of such values to the task of
understanding the world and our place in it, but rather has
completely transformed the task, redefining the goals of enquiry.
This distinctive feature of the development of a scientific culture
in the West marks it out from other scientifically productive
cultures. In The Emergence of a Scientific Culture, Stephen
Gaukroger offers a detailed and comprehensive account of the
formative stages of this development--and one which challenges the
received wisdom that science was seen to be self-evidently the
correct path to knowledge and that the benefits of science were
immediately obvious to the disinterested observer.
This book brings together scholars of a variety of the world's major civilisations to focus on the universal theme of inner transformation. The idea of the self is a cultural formation like any other, and models and conceptions of the inner world of the person vary widely from one civilisation to another. Nonetheless, all the world's great religions insist on the need to transform this inner world, however it is understood, in highly expressive and specific ways. Such transformations, often ritually enacted, reveal the primary intutitions, drives, and conflicts active within culuture. The individual essays - by such distinguished scholars as Wai-yee Li, Janet Gyatso, Wendy Doniger, Christiano Grottanelli, Charles Malamoud, Margalit Finkelberg, and Moshe Idel - study dramatic examples of these processes in a wide range of cultures, including China, India, Tibet, Greece and Rome, Late Antiquity, Islam, Judaism, and medieval and early-modern Chritian Europe.
I Know myself, I know myself, I am One With God -From the Pert Em
Heru "The Ru Pert em Heru" or "Ancient Egyptian Book of The Dead,"
or "Book of Coming Forth By Day" as it is more popularly known, has
fascinated the world since the successful translation of Ancient
Egyptian hieroglyphic scripture over 150 years ago. The astonishing
writings in it reveal that the Ancient Egyptians believed in life
after death and in an ultimate destiny to discover the Divine. The
elegance and aesthetic beauty of the hieroglyphic text itself has
inspired many see it as an art form in and of itself. But is there
more to it than that? Did the Ancient Egyptian wisdom contain more
than just aphorisms and hopes of eternal life beyond death? In this
volume Dr. Muata Ashby, the author of over 25 books on Ancient
Egyptian Yoga Philosophy has produced a new translation of the
original texts which uncovers a mystical teaching underlying the
sayings and rituals instituted by the Ancient Egyptian Sages and
Saints. "Once the philosophy of Ancient Egypt is understood as a
mystical tradition instead of as a religion or primitive mythology,
it reveals its secrets which if practiced today will lead anyone to
discover the glory of spiritual self-discovery. The Pert em Heru is
in every way comparable to the Indian Upanishads or the Tibetan
Book of the Dead." $28.95 ISBN# 1-884564-28-3 Size: 81/2" X
This is a view of the work of philosopher Giorgio Agamben in
relation to his own most basic theological premises and the
discipline of theology. Though the work of Italian theorist Giorgio
Agamben has been increasing in popularity over the last several
years in the English-speaking world, little work has been done
directly on the theological legacy which actually dominates the
overall force of his critical analyses, a topic which has intrigued
his readers since the publication of his short book on Saint Paul's
'Letter to the Romans'. "Agamben and Theology" intends to
illuminate such a connection by examining the theologically
inflected terms that have come to dominate his work over time,
including the messianic, the sacred, sovereignty, glory, creation,
original sin, redemption and revelation. "The Philosophy and
Theology" series looks at major philosophers and explores their
relevance to theological thought as well as the response of
theology.
The volume will consist of a series of interpretative studies of
Locke 's philosophical and religious thought in historical context
and consider his contributions to the Enlightenment and modern
liberal thought.
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.
We live in a cynical age. Cynicism is in the air we breathe; it is
a cultural norm; it is the default setting and lens through which
many of us view the world. Why is cynicism so pervasive? What does
it promise? How does it work? And what does it deliver? In this
thorough, interdisciplinary exploration of cynicism, Dick Keyes
probes the intellectual and cultural underpinnings of cynicism in
its modern and postmodern manifestations. In analyzing our cynicism
toward individuals, institutions and God, he gives cynicism the
scrutiny it deserves, arguing for its merits as a tool for
discernment while pointing out its limitations. Keyes subjects
cynicism to its own critique and ultimately looks beyond cynicism
to alternatives that wrestle honestly with suspicion, trust and
hope. Wide-ranging and vast in scope, Seeing Through Cynicism
offers meaty, substantive perspectives for faithful living in a
cynical world.
The political writings of John Wesley (1703-1791) reveal a
passionate campaigner engaged throughout his life with the care of
the oppressed. His life was one of great paradox: as a
high-churchman and Tory, living under the instruction of the Bible,
tradition set him against radical change, yet few individuals could
have been more responsible for upheaval in church and society. He
believed scriptures set him against the cause of democracy, yet
scarcely one other single person could have contributed more to its
realization. His gospel religion inflamed in him an outrage at the
social and political evils of his day that was barely matched by
the more explicitly radical of his contemporaries. This volume
collects addresses and pamphlets that capture Wesley's views on a
variety of political subjects including the nature of political
power, his response to Richard Price's Observations on Liberty, his
views on slavery, on poverty, on the secession of the American
colonies, and on the luxury of the rich. Together they make clear
the relevance of Wesley to subsequent developments in the abolition
of slavery and the evolution of labour politics. The book features
an extensive new introduction by the editor.
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To Stand and Serve
(Hardcover)
Dan Miron, Koren Publisher Jerusalem; Edited by Aviad Tabory, Elli Fischer
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R597
Discovery Miles 5 970
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Fr Pierre Johanns is a key figure in the history of Christian
intellectual engagement with Hindu philosophy. He was the most
articulate figure in a group of Belgian Jesuits in Calcutta who
sought to develop the theological project initiated by
Brahmabandhab Upadhyay, a convert to Catholicism whose theology
conveyed a positive appreciation of aspects of Hindu advaitic
philosophy. Johanns began to publish a steady stream of articles in
the monthly Light of the East that analysed pertinent features of
Vedantic thought from the perspective of his neo-Thomistic
presuppositions. Johanns engaged in a thorough explication and
analysis of the thinking of the Hindu teachers Sankara, Ramanuja,
and Vallabha. He attempted to fashion a creative synthesis of their
views, constructing a new, holistic metaphysic from the raw
material of their respective philosophical theologies. This book
examines the theological writings of Pierre Johanns by situating
him within his historical context, by discussing how Johanns
interacted with Vedantic philosophy, and by assessing the success
of his project.
In the late eighteenth century, German Jews began entering the
middle class with remarkable speed. That upward mobility, it has
often been said, coincided with Jews' increasing alienation from
religion and Jewish nationhood. In fact, Michah Gottlieb argues,
this period was one of intense engagement with Jewish texts and
traditions. One expression of this was the remarkable turn to Bible
translation. In the century and a half beginning with Moses
Mendelssohn's pioneering translation and the final one by Martin
Buber and Franz Rosenzweig, German Jews produced sixteen different
translations of at least the Pentateuch. Exploring Bible
translations by Mendelssohn, Leopold Zunz, and Samson Raphael
Hirsch, Michah Gottlieb argues that each translator sought a
"reformation" of Judaism along bourgeois lines, which involved
aligning Judaism with a Protestant concept of religion. Buber and
Rosenzweig famously critiqued bourgeois German Judaism as a craven
attempt to establish social respectability to facilitate Jews'
entry into the middle class through a vapid, domesticated Judaism.
But Mendelssohn, Zunz, and Hirsch saw in bourgeois values the best
means to serve God and the authentic actualization of Jewish
tradition. Through their learned, creative Bible translations,
these scholars presented competing visions of middle-class Judaism
that affirmed Jewish nationhood while lighting the path to a
purposeful, emotionally-rich spiritual life grounded in ethical
responsibility.
The Writings of Austin Osman Spare is a collection of three books
written by the famous artist and occult author. The three books
included in this publication are Anathema of Zos: The Sermon to the
Hypocrites, The Book of Pleasure: The Psychology of Ecstasy and The
Focus of Life: The Mutterings of Aaos. This compilation of three of
Spare's most popular works is a must read for those that are fans
of his writings and those interested in books on the occult.
Leontius of Jerusalem is considered the most accomplished of the
neo-Chalcedonian theologians of the sixth century. He shows
himself, in his Testimonies of the Saints, to be an ecumenical
theologian attempting to convince Syrian anti-Chalcedonians
('Monophysites') that their objections to Chalcedon are baseless,
since all agree, beneath their antithetical formulae, on a
christology of hypostatic union. They are urged to abandon their
self-important yet discredited mentor, Severus, and to see that
Chalcedon had no secret agenda. Gray's edition of this important
early Christian treatise provides an introduction, the Greek text,
and notes, together with a new translation into readable, modern
English.
Distinguished experts from a range of disciplines (Orientalists, philologists, philosophers, theologians, and historians) with a common interest in late antiquity probe the apparent paradox of pagan monotheism and reach a better understanding of the historical roots of Christianity.
Our Fate is a collection of John Martin Fischer's previously
published articles on the relationship between God's foreknowledge
and human freedom. The book contains a new introductory essay that
places all of the chapters in the book into a cohesive framework.
The introductory essay also provides some new views about the
issues treated in the book, including a bold and original account
of God's foreknowledge of free actions in a causally
indeterministic world. The focus of the book is a powerful
traditional argument for the incompatibility of God's foreknowledge
and human freedom to do otherwise. Fischer presents this argument
(in various forms) and defends it against some of the most salient
criticisms, especially Ockhamism. The incompatibilist's argument is
driven by the fixity of the past, and, in particular, the fixity of
God's prior beliefs about our current behavior. The author gives
special attention to Ockhamism, which contends that God's prior
beliefs are not "over-and-done-with" in the past, and are thus not
subject to the intuitive idea of the fixity of the past. In the
end, Fischer defends the argument for the incompatibility of God's
foreknowledge and human freedom to do otherwise, but he further
argues that this incompatibility need not entail the
incompatibility of God's foreknowledge and human moral
responsibility. Thus, through this collection of essays, Fischer
develops a "semicompatibilist" view - the belief that God's
foreknowledge is entirely compatible with human moral
responsibility, even if God's foreknowledge rules out freedom to do
otherwise.
What is utopia? Why are communes created? Where are they, and what
do they promote? The Palgrave Companion to North American Utopias
is a fascinating virtual catalogue of utopian societies and
communes from past to present. From the Shakers to the Mormons to
the Raelians and the Hutterites, the quest for a utopian lifestyle
has been a human endeavor since the beginning of time. In this
intriguing guide, North American utopian communities are explored
by Friesen and Friesen with a view to a new social system for the
twenty first century. The authors assert that the formation of a
utopian society is both possible and feasible, and give examples of
how to create one of our own. This is a smart, clever and unique
reference for all of us who are curious to know more about utopian
communities. MARKET 1: Religion; Sociology; Anthropology
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