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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Alternative belief systems > Humanist & secular alternatives to religion
Samuel Stefan Osusky was a leading intellectual in Slovak
Lutheranism and a bishop in his church. In 1937 he delivered a
prescient lecture to the assembled clergy, "The Philosophy of
Fascism, Bolshevism and Hitlerism", that clearly foretold the dark
days ahead. As wartime bishop, he co-authored a "Pastoral Letter on
the Jewish Question", which publicly decried the deportation of
Jews to Poland in 1942; in 1944 he was imprisoned by the Gestapo
for giving moral support to the Slovak National Uprising against
the fascist puppet regime. Paul R. Hinlicky traces the intellectual
journey with ethical idealism's faith in the progressive theology
of history that ended in dismay and disillusionment at the
revolutionary pretensions of Marxism-Leninism. Hinlicky shows
Osusky's dramatic rediscovery of the apocalyptic "the mother of
Christian theology", and his input into the discussion of the
dialectic of faith and reason after rationalism and fundamentalism.
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, missionary, 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.
A fascinating exploration of the breadth of social, emotional, and
spiritual experiences of atheists in America Self-identified
atheists make up roughly 5 percent of the American religious
landscape, comprising a larger population than Jehovah's Witnesses,
Orthodox Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus combined. In
spite of their relatively significant presence in society, atheists
are one of the most stigmatized groups in the United States,
frequently portrayed as immoral, unhappy, or even outright angry.
Yet we know very little about what their lives are actually like as
they live among their largely religious, and sometimes hostile,
fellow citizens. In this book, Jerome P. Baggett listens to what
atheists have to say about their own lives and viewpoints. Drawing
on questionnaires and interviews with more than five hundred
American atheists scattered across the country, The Varieties of
Nonreligious Experience uncovers what they think about morality,
what gives meaning to their lives, how they feel about religious
people, and what they think and know about religion itself. Though
the wider public routinely understands atheists in negative terms,
as people who do not believe in God, Baggett pushes readers to view
them in a different light. Rather than simply rejecting God and
religion, atheists actually embrace something much more
substantive-lives marked by greater integrity, open-mindedness, and
progress. Beyond just talking about or to American atheists, the
time is overdue to let them speak for themselves. This book is a
must-read for anyone interested in joining the conversation.
For more than a century, scholars have believed that Italian
humanism was predominantly civic in outlook. Often serving in
communal government, fourteenth-century humanists like Albertino
Mussato and Coluccio Saltuati are said to have derived from their
reading of the Latin classics a rhetoric of republican liberty that
was opposed to the 'tyranny' of neighbouring signori and of the
German emperors. In this ground-breaking study, Alexander Lee
challenges this long-held belief. From the death of Frederick II in
1250 to the failure of Rupert of the Palatinate's ill-fated
expedition in 1402, Lee argues, the humanists nurtured a consistent
and powerful affection for the Holy Roman Empire. Though this was
articulated in a variety of different ways, it was nevertheless
driven more by political conviction than by cultural concerns.
Surrounded by endless conflict - both within and between
city-states - the humanists eagerly embraced the Empire as the
surest guarantee of peace and liberty, and lost no opportunity to
invoke its protection. Indeed, as Lee shows, the most ardent
appeals to imperial authority were made not by 'signorial'
humanists, but by humanists in the service of communal regimes. The
first comprehensive, synoptic study of humanistic ideas of Empire
in the period c.1250-1402, this volume offers a radically new
interpretation of fourteenth-century political thought, and raises
wide-ranging questions about the foundations of modern
constitutional ideas. As such, it is essential reading not just for
students of Renaissance Italy and the history of political thought,
but for all those interested in understanding the origins of
liberty
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Joinings
(Paperback)
MR Stuart Aken; Illustrated by Heather Murphy
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R653
Discovery Miles 6 530
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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When a misjudged omen undermines a tyrant's rule, how will he
ensure his survival? When the Skyfire arrives early, Dagla Kaz sets
out for the ancient homeland to harvest a new Godwood and exchange
Virgin Gifts. He must lead his pilgrims hundreds of leagues over
pirate-infested seas, across hostile lands, and return triumphant
before the seared sky dies back to normality. In his father's
absence, the renegade Aklon risks torture and death to bring
justice to the people. Mindtalk with a wise woman on the distant
mainland has opened his eyes to the evil underlying the society he
inhabits. And, whilst seeking truth, he finds a soulmate in the
most unexpected place. Seeing his daughter Tumalind wrongly chosen
as a Virgin Gift, religious fanatic Aglydron follows the mission to
right the wrong. Okkyntalah, her betrothed, helps kidnap the
rightful victim to take her over unknown seas and lands, facing
violent death at the end of their journey.
The Athiest's Primer is a concise but wide-ranging introduction to
a variety of arguments, concepts, and issues pertaining to belief
in God. In lucid and engaging prose, Malcom Murray offers a
penetrating yet fair-minded critique of the traditional arguments
for the existence of God. He then explores a number of other
important issues relevant to religious belief, such as the problem
of suffering and the relationship between religion and morality, in
each case arguing that atheism is preferable to theism. The book
will appeal to both students and professionals in the philosophy of
religion, as well as general audiences interested in the topic.
Recently, the "new" atheists have been putting out books, articles,
bus ads, and TV programs in attempts to sway people to their cause.
Through these tactics they've managed to gain a large amount of
public attention and media exposure--but do their arguments really
hold water? Using the analogy put forward by esteemed philosopher
Anthony Flew, Michael Poole examines the new atheists' use of the
"10 leaky buckets" tactic of argumentation--presenting readers with
a sum of arguments that are each individually defective, as though
the cumulative effect should be persuasive. This closer look at the
facts reveals that the buckets are, indeed, leaky.
The Western World is becoming atheist. In the space of three
generations churchgoing and religious belief have become alien to
millions. We are in the midst of one of humankind's great cultural
changes. How has this happened? Becoming Atheist explores how
people of the sixties' generation have come to live their lives as
if there is no God. It tells the life narratives of those from
Britain, Western Europe, the United States and Canada who came from
Christian, Jewish and other backgrounds to be without faith. Based
on interviews with 85 people born in 18 countries, Callum Brown
shows how gender, ethnicity and childhood shape how individuals
lose religion. This book moves from statistical and broad cultural
analysis to use frank, humorous and sometimes harrowing personal
testimony. Becoming Atheist exposes people's role in renegotiating
their own identities, and fashioning a secular and humanist culture
for the Western world.
Can secularism continue to provide a foundation for political
legitimacy? It is often claimed that one of the cultural
achievements of the West has been its establishment of secular
democracy, wherein religious belief is respected but confined to
the sphere of private belief. In more recent times, however,
political secularism has been increasingly called into question.
Religious believers, in numerous traditions, have protested against
the distortion and confinement that secularism imposes on their
faith. Others have become uneasily aware of the way in which
secularism no longer commands universal assent in the way it once
did. Confronting Secularism in Europe and India adds to this debate
by staging a creative encounter between European and Indian
conceptions of secularism with a view to continuing new and
distinctive trajectories of thought about the place and role of
secularism in contemporary times. Looking at political secularism,
the relationship between secularism and religion, and religious and
secular violence, this book considers whether there are viable
alternatives to secularism in Europe and in India.
The Atheist Coloring and Activity Book is a complete course on the
world view of Atheism meant for adults.
Comprehensive, up to date, and engaging, Science, Evolution, and
Religion provides detailed coverage of the science-religion debate
in contemporary culture and academia. The two authors, Michael
Peterson and Michael Ruse, present theism and atheism,
respectively, and argue for their positions. Peterson occasionally
draws from Christian doctrine to supplement theism; Ruse often
supplements his atheism with elements drawn from the larger context
of philosophical naturalism. The result is a rich and respectful
dialogure and debate on the nature of science, cosmic origins,
biological origins, the anthropic principle, and the meaning of
life, among other important subjects.
In Christmas as Religion, Christopher Deacy explores the premise
that religion plays an elementary role in our understanding of the
Christmas festival, but takes issue with much of the existing
literature which is inclined to limit the contours and parameters
of 'religion' to particular representations and manifestations of
institutional forms of Christianity. 'Religion' is often tacitly
identified as having an ecclesiastical frame of reference, so that
if the Church is not deemed to play a central role in the practice
of Christmas for many people today then it can legitimately be
side-lined and relegated to the periphery of any discussion
relating to what Christmas 'means'. Deacy argues that such
approaches fail to take adequate stock of the manifold ways in
which people's beliefs and values take shape in modern society. For
example, Christmas films or radio programmes may comprise a
non-specifically Christian, but nonetheless religiously rich,
repository of beliefs, values, sentiments and aspirations.
Therefore, this book makes the case for laying to rest the
secularization thesis, with its simplistic assumption that religion
in Western society is undergoing a period of escalating and
irrevocable erosion, and to see instead that the secular may itself
be a repository of the religious. Rather than see Christmas as
comprising alternative or analogous forms of religious expression,
or dependent on any causal relationship to the Christian tradition,
Deacy maintains that it is religious per se, and, moreover, it is
its very secularity that makes Christmas such a compelling, and
even transcendent, religious holiday.
A Mexican immigrant and rising star within the Christian community
abandons his faith and comes out as a gay atheist In this
exceptionally moving and soul-searching memoir, Fernando AlcĂntar
recounts his incredible journey from poor Catholic boy on the dusty
streets of Mexico to globetrotting missionary and high-profile
Christian leader in the United Statesâwhere he eventually left
his celebrated life behind to advocate for the liberating power of
reason and equality. With heart-wrenching honesty, he shares
stories of trauma, tragedy, prejudice, uncertainty, survival, and,
ultimately, discovery. In the process, he gives a voice to
thousands who are hiding in the shadows, afraid to publicly
question their religious, cultural, or sexual identity for fear of
isolation and retaliation. You will discover that his is not simply
a Mexican story or an American story, a heterosexual's story or a
homosexual's story, a Christian's story or an atheist's story.
Rather, his is a universal storyâone uniquely about and for our
times.Â
God and Evidence presents a new set of compelling problems for
theistic philosophers. The problems pertain to three types of
theistic philosopher, which Lovering defines here as 'theistic
inferentialists,' 'theistic non-inferentialists,' and 'theistic
fideists.' Theistic inferentialists believe that God exists, that
there is inferential probabilifying evidence of God's existence,
and that this evidence is discoverable not simply in principle but
in practice. Theistic non-inferentialists believe that God exists,
that there is non-inferential probabilifying evidence of God's
existence, and that this evidence is discoverable not simply in
principle but in practice. Theistic fideists believe that God
exists, that there is no discoverable probabilifying evidence
(inferential or non-inferential) of God's existence, and that it is
nevertheless acceptable-morally if not otherwise-to have faith that
God exists. Lovering argues that each type of theistic philosopher
faces a problem unique to his type and that they all share two
particular problems. Some of these problems take us down an
entirely new discursive path; others down a new discursive path
branching off from an old one.
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