Jews and Muslims make up less than 3% of the total population of the United States. Yet, despite their relatively small numbers, the members of these two minority groups often find themselves the focus of a disproportionate amount of media attention, particularly when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Beyond such international issues, American Jews and American Muslims find themselves struggling with similar inter-communal concerns when it comes to matters like education (for example tensions between student populations of Jews and Muslims on university campuses), politics (such as the swearing in of the first Muslim Congressman in the House of Representatives, Keith Ellison, or the omnipresent emails and robo-calls linking President Obama to the Muslim community that emerged during the 2008 Presidential election), or even pop culture (think of such recent Hollywood productions as "Kingdom in Heaven," "Munich," "Paradise Now," and "Traitor," to name but a few). In all of these matters, American Jews and American Muslims have consistently engaged each other in conversation - whether directly or indirectly; constructive or not - in ways that have usually eluded their co-religionists throughout the rest of the world. This has partly to do with America's ethos as a "melting pot" of different religions, ethnicities, and cultures. But it also has to do with the innovative ways in which Judaism and Islam have absorbed, and been radically altered, by the so-called "American experience."

This book is an exploration of contemporary Jewish-Muslim relations in the United States and the distinct and often creative ways in which these two communities interact with one another in the American context. Each essay discusses a different episode from the recent twentieth and current twenty-first century American milieu that links these two groups together. Some deal with case examples of local inter-communal interaction, such as "dialogue groups," which can help us better understand national trends of similar activities in other parts of the country. Others focus on national trends themselves, thus giving us greater insights into individual incidents.

This book is a theory-informed, comparative and historical exploration of the notion of the public sphere within Western and Islamic traditions. It situates the emergence of the modern public sphere in a wider historical and theoretical context than usually done in conventional analyses. The work traces cross-cutting genealogies spanning conventional borders between tradition and modernity, and in particular between the Western and the Islamic world. This approach unsettles received, evolutionary views of the public sphere as an exclusive legacy of Western political cultures. The public sphere is finally reconceived as a complex platform for the modern cultivation of culturally diverse, competing, yet intersecting discourses.

"Insight and Analysis" applies Bernard Lonergan's thought to current issues in philosophy and in moral and other areas of theology. The common theme of the book is seen in the thread running through the chapters: a dialogue and critical comparison and contrast between Lonergan's thought and various key interlocutors in philosophy and theology. The title of this book, "Insight and Analysis", suggests its main focus - Lonergan and analytical philosophy - but also references one of Lonergan's most influential works: "Insight: A Study of Human Understanding". The chapters which explore the implications of Lonergan's thought for current work in analytical philosophy include discussions of Dummett, Wittgenstein, Searle, MacIntyre, Mackie, and Hintikka. However, Andrew Beards also brings Lonergan into dialogue with the continental tradition, with an extensive chapter on Badiou. Chapters on fundamental moral theology, Rahner's philosophy, and interrculturality and the writings of (the then) Cardinal Ratzinger indicate the importance of Lonergan as a philosophical theologian. "Insight and Analysis" presents a wide-ranging reassessment of the impact and application of Lonergan's thought.

Animal suffering constitutes perhaps the greatest challenge to rational belief in the existence of God. Considerations that render human suffering theologically intelligible seem inapplicable to animal suffering. In this book, Dougherty defends radical possibilities for animal afterlife that allow a soul-making theodicy to apply to their case.

Of all the wide-ranging interests Coleridge showed in his career, religion was the deepest and most long-lasting; and Beer demonstrates in this book that none of his work can be fully understood without taking this into account. Beer reveals how Coleridge was preoccupied by the life of the mind, and how closely this subject was intertwined with religion in his thinking. The insights that emerge in this collection are of absorbing interest, showing the efforts of a pioneer to reconcile traditional wisdom, both inside and outside orthodox Christianity, with the questions that were becoming evident to a sensitive enquirer.

American mystic CHARLES FILLMORE (1854-1948) was a founder of Unity Church, part of the early "New Age" movement called New Thought that was popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Unity adheres to a "positive, practical Christianity," and this 1940 edition embodies that philosophy: it preaches that poverty is a sin, and that God wants us to be rich...a strain that has been picked up by some modern fundamentalist preachers in a way not entirely faithful to Fillmore's beliefs. Fillmore's lessons encompass... Spiritual Substance, the Fundamental Basis of the Universe Spiritual Mind, the Omnipresent Directive Principle of Prosperity Faith in the Invisible Substance, the Key to Demonstration Man, the Inlet and Outlet of Divine Mind The Law That Governs the Manifestation of Supply Wealth of Mind Expresses Itself in Riches God Has Provided Prosperity for Every Home God Will Pay Your Debts Tithing, the Road to Prosperity Right Giving, the Key to Abundant Receiving Laying Up Treasures Overcoming the Thought of Lack

After a Darwinian-type account of what beliefs are and how they arose in animals acting to cope with their environments--"low beliefs," virtually all of which are true--Wallace Matson here shows how the invention of language led to imagination and thence to beliefs formed in other ways ("high beliefs"), not true though thought to be, which could be consolidated into mythologies, the first Grand Unified Theories of Everything. Science began when Thales of Miletus produced a Grand Theory based on low ("everyday") beliefs. Matson traces the course of science and philosophy through seven centuries to their sudden and violent displacement by Christianity with its Grand Theory of the old type. Against the widespread opinion that modern philosophy has slowly but completely emancipated itself from bondage to theology, he shows how remnants from the medieval 'interlude' still lurk unnoticed in the purportedly neutral notions of logical possibility, possible worlds, and laws as commands, to the detriment of the natural harmony between science and philosophy, including ethics. Accessibly written, this is a book for all who are interested in the foundations of 21st century thought and who wonder where the cracks might be.

Examines his contribution as a philosopher and theologian to issues of racial and social justice and his drive to eradicate oppression through the doctrine of nonviolence.

In this book Philip Clayton defends the rationality of religious explanations by exploring the parallels between explanatory effects in the sciences and the explanations offered by religious believers, students of religion, and theologians. Clayton begins by surveying the types of religious explanation, offering a synopsis of the most significant competing positions. He then critically examines recent important developments in the philosophy of science regarding the nature of scientific explanations-including the work of Popper, Hempel, Kuhn, and Lakatos in the natural sciences and Habermas, Weber, and Schutz in the social sciences. Clayton outlines the process of rational evaluation in these disciplines, defining the explanatory quest as the attempt to make sense of or bring coherence into subjective and intersubjective worlds. He briefly discusses explanations in philosophy and then turns to the explanatory role of individual religious experience, drawing on a coherence theory of meaning and on the conclusions from his discussion of science. Based on his defense of the doubting or "secular" believer, he concludes by advocating a model of theology in which questions about the truth of a religious tradition are intrinsic to its theology. "A valuable exposition of the thesis that the explanatory work of theology possesses formal similarities with that of the physical sciences, the social sciences, and philosophy. Clayton exhibits an impressive command of a broad area of scholarship, and his reflections are balanced and carefully argued." -Michael J. Buckley, S.J., professor of religion at the Jesuit Theological Seminary and author of At the Origins of Modern Atheism "I know of no philosopher writing today who has dealt in as informed and thoughtful a way with the broad subject of this book. Clayton guides the reader through important discussions with ease, illuminating the path all along the way." -Josiah B. Gould, professor of philosophy at the State University of New York, Albany.

This irreverent romp over the sacred cows of religion is a humorous and refreshingly down-to-earth call for common sense. Judith Hayes, the Erma Bombeck of the secular humanist community, has the unique ability to raise serious points while making us laugh as she throws buckets of cold water on the irrational beliefs and maddening inconsistencies that often characterize popular religion. She's at her best when recounting modern-day "miracles" such as the apparition of the Virgin Mary's face in a waffle at a Fresno diner; or when she describes how she started rubbing a stuffed penguin whenever she had the urge to pray, and got the same results.
But there are also poignant stories about believing friends and acquaintances whose struggles with irrational beliefs in the face of perplexing dilemmas and personal tragedies are in many cases heartrending. She also devotes a chapter to explaining in clear, concise, layperson's terms exactly what humanism is and stands for, in particular extolling its tolerance.
"When people ask me why I write what I write," she says, "I usually answer, 'To nudge people.' This is literally the truth. I try to nudge people into thinking about things they might otherwise never give a passing thought to. I try to make it easier for them to do so by using satire, vivid imagery, and a sprinkling of merry nonsense."
By turns funny, provocative, and touching, Judith Hayes is the perfect popular spokesperson for clear thinking and reason.

Religion is not merely a different way of thinking but is rather an alternative manner of being-it is both a way of attending to the world and a form of embodiment. Literature provides another key to legislating new ways of being in the world. Some of the best Romantic literature can be understood as experimental attempts to access and harness infrasensible energy-affects and dispositions operating beneath the threshold of consciousness-in the hope that by so doing it may become possible to project elusive affects into the practical world of conscious thinking and judgment. Words Made Flesh demonstrates how the Romantic poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, and Percy Bysshe Shelley and the novelist Jane Austen affect, mediate, and ultimately alter our very sense of embodiment in ways that have lasting effects on readers' affective, political, and spiritual lives. Such works, which unsettle habitual ways of seeing, are perennially valuable because they not only call attention to the dispositions we normally inhabit, but they also suggest ways of forging new patterns and forms of life through the medium of embodiment.Drawing on the work of these writers, Dempsey argues that Romanticism's contribution to our understanding of the postsecular becomes clearer when considered in relation to three timely scholarly conversations not previously synthesized: secular and postsecular studies, affect theory, and media studies. By weaving together these three strands, Words Made Flesh clarifies how Romanticism provides a useful field guide to the new geography of the self ushered in by secular modernity, while also pointing toward potential postsecular futures. Ultimately, Dempsey argues for a view of literature that recognizes it as an essential component to ethical practice.

Pythagoras (c. 570 - c. 495 BC), arguably the most influential thinker among the Presocratics, emerges in ancient tradition as a wise teacher, an outstanding mathematician, an influential politician, and as a religious and ethical reformer. He claimed to possess supernatural powers and was the kind of personality who attracted legends. In contrast to his controversial and elusive nature, the early Pythagoreans, such as the doctors Democedes and Alcmaeon, the Olympic victors Milon and Iccus, the botanist Menestor, the natural philosopher Hippon, and the mathematicians Hippasus and Theodorus, all appear in our sources as 'rational' as they can possibly be. It was this 'normality' that ensured the continued existence of Pythagoreanism as a philosophical and scientific school till c. 350 BC. This volume offers a comprehensive study of Pythagoras and the early Pythagoreans through an analysis of the many representations of the Teacher and his followers, allowing the representations to complement and critique each other. Relying predominantly on sources dating back to before 300 BC, Zhmud portrays a more historical picture of Pythagoras, of the society founded by him, and of its religion than is known from the late antique biographies. In chapters devoted to mathematical and natural sciences cultivated by the Pythagoreans and to their philosophies, a critical distinction is made between the theories of individual figures and a generalized 'all-Pythagorean teaching', which is known from Aristotle.

In an age dominated by science many traditional concepts are being reevaluated in light of current knowledge about the physical and biological world. Among the many religious notions passed down from generation to generation, belief in the soul may be the most in need of reconsideration. Despite its slightly antiquated nuances and its fuzziness as a coherent idea, people today still refer to the soul quite frequently We often hear such questions as: Can the soul leave the body? Does the soul survive death? And if so, do the souls of the departed occasionally appear to the living? But, given what we now know about the brain, psychology, and body chemistry, the skeptic may well ask, what meaning or relevance can this medieval term possibly have?
Physicist Jerome W. Elbert takes up this intriguing issue in this informative yet accessible study. He begins by reviewing the ancient origins of the soul concept, looks at Christian beliefs and pagan parallels, and then considers how the advance of science has changed our fundamental understanding of the brain and consciousness. These new scientific insights, he points out, inevitably affect our traditional ideas about the soul. Moreover, many contemporary dilemmas have much to do with whether or not we posit the existence of a soul-for example, the question of free will and the debate over abortion. Taking into consideration the views of many recognized experts, he moves to the inescapable conclusion that we can account for the nature of life, the mind, and the human decision-making process without any need for the now obsolete idea of a soul.
Insightful and absorbing, Are Souls Real? is popular science writing at its best.

Future Christ is one of the first English translations of the work of Francois Laruelle, one of the most exciting voices in contemporary French philosophy and the creator of the practice of 'non-philosophy'. In this work Laruelle draws on material from the traditions of Christianity, Judaism and Gnosticism, but he does so by suspending their authority. This adventure in non-philosophy does not claim to think for religion, but from it as material and with disinterest towards its self-given status as ultimate authority. This provocative, yet remarkably accessible book introduces philosophy to the lessons of heresy and makes use of them in a non-philosophical "dualysis" of messianism and apocalypticism. Laruelle investigates the "heretic question", analogous to but historically distinguished from the "Jewish question", to develop a "non-Christian science" that struggles against and for our World. Future Christ thus opens up novel ways of thinking within existing religious and philosophical thought and marks an incisive and wide-ranging non-philosophical engagement with key contemporary debates in philosophy and theology.

This highly personal account of a lifetime's spiritual and philosophical enquiry charts the author's journey of faith through contemporary culture. Distinguishing between what she posits as the 'universal' and the 'rhapsodic' "logos," Tymieniecka interrogates concepts as varied as creativity and the media, joy and suffering, and truth and ambiguity. She contemplates the possibilities and limits of communication between human beings, and outlines what she calls the 'transnatural destiny' of the human soul.

The book asserts that unlike theory, which unfolds a logical continuity, and unlike dialogue, which is directed sequentially upward toward intellectual conclusions, the mode of reflection of the 'rhapsodic logos' imposes no limits or caps upon its understanding. Instead, the 'logoic' flow interlaces the rhapsodic cadences of our reflections on reality, in all their innumerable fluctuations, and sifts them to mold the intimate mind/soul inwardness that we experience as faith.

The radiative meditations of this 'rhapsodic logos' weave their way through the entanglements of the mystery of incarnation, the constitutive archetypes, the inwardly sacred, the transnatural destiny of the soul, and finally ascend the rhapsodic scales toward culminating faith in the Christo-Logos."

The shadow of David Hume, the eighteenth-century Scottish philosopher, has loomed large against all efforts to prove the existence of God from evidence in the natural world. Indeed from Hume's day to ours, the vast majority of philosophical attacks against the rationality of theism have borne an unmistakable Humean aroma. The last forty years, however, have been marked by a resurgence in Christian theism among philosophers, and the time has come for a thorough reassessment of the case for natural theology. James F. Sennett and Douglas Groothuis have assembled a distinguished team of philosophers to engage the task: Terence Penelhum, Todd M. Furman, Keith Yandell, Garrett J. DeWeese, Joshua Rasmussen, James D. Madden, Robin Collins, Paul Copan, Victor Reppert, J. P. Moreland and R. Douglas Geivett. Together this team makes vigorous individual and cumulative arguments that set Hume's attacks in fresh perspective and that offer new insights into the value of teleological, cosmological and ontological arguments for God's existence.