Peter Annet was probably one of the most aggressive deists that the eighteenth century produced. His collection of statements on deistic principles invoked the following praise from one of his twentieth-century admirers, Ella Twyman, who compared him with Voltaire: 'these two great Deists lived in different countries, and under different conditions, there is a remarkable resemblance between them for classical knowledge, originality of thought and view-points, and, especially, for the brilliant wit and humour that flow, like sparkling sunlit streams, through the fair fields of their works.'

A reply to Mathew Tindal's Christianity as Old as the Creation, this text when first published provoked criticism for the author's free-thinking beliefs and led to many exchanges of opinions with other theologians.

Deism was often synonymous with 'natural religion' (as distinct from 'revealed religion') in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; it meant belief in a God, but not in any particular mystical or supernatural powers. The word itself was probably coined in the middle of the sixteenth century in France, but the concept began to emerge in British theology in the seventeenth century, most notably in De Veritate (1624) by Lord (Edward) Herbert of Cherbury. By the middle of the seventeenth century, deism was beginning to concern orthodox theologians, and any suggestion of it was quickly attacked. Interest in deism was not so much a movement or a philosophical system, as it was a concept which allowed those who were uneasy with the elements of superstition in revealed religion to accommodate within the enlarging boundaries of religion difficult theological, or even specifically Christian, ideas. Yet many Christian clerics felt that deism led invariably and inevitably to atheism and vigorously opposed the idea and were often intolerant of its adherents. The texts reprinted here combine major documents in the history of deism in britain with other less well-known texts whose relevance to the topic has yet to be properly assessed. Oracles of Reason contains some of Blount's best and most original work. Many of the articles in it had been circulated clandestinely in manuscript form for over ten years: publication of them was regarded as dangerous and would have been open to charges of subversion and treason. Its publication provoked a number of replies and attacks, effectively preparing the ground for a controversy that would spectacularly grow in the following years. An important and rare document in the history of deistic thought.

Naturalistic ethics is the reigning paradigm among contemporary ethicists; in God and Cosmos, Baggett and Walls argue that this approach is seriously flawed. This book canvasses a broad array of secular and naturalistic ethical theories in an effort to test their adequacy in accounting for moral duties, intrinsic human value, prospects for radical moral transformation, and the rationality of morality. In each case, the authors argue, although various secular accounts provide real insights and indeed share common ground with theistic ethics, the resources of classical theism and orthodox Christianity provide the better explanation of the moral realities under consideration. Among such realities is the fundamental insight behind the problem of evil, namely, that the world is not as it should be. Baggett and Walls argue that God and the world, taken together, exhibit superior explanatory scope and power for morality classically construed, without the need to water down the categories of morality, the import of human value, the prescriptive strength of moral obligations, or the deliverances of the logic, language, and phenomenology of moral experience. This book thus provides a cogent moral argument for God's existence, one that is abductive, teleological, and cumulative.

This book raises in a new way a central question of Christology: what is the divine motive for the incarnation? Throughout Christian history a majority of Western theologians have agreed that God's decision to become incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ was made necessary by "the Fall": if humans had not sinned, the incarnation would not have happened. This position is known as "infralapsarian." A minority of theologians however, including some major 19th- and 20th-century theological figures, championed a "supralapsarian" Christology, arguing that God has always intended the incarnation, independent of "the Fall."
Edwin Chr. van Driel offers the first scholarly monograph to map and analyze the full range of supralapsarian arguments. He gives a thick description of each argument and its theological consequences, and evaluates the theological gains and losses inherent in each approach. Van Driel shows that each of the three ways in which God is thought to relate to all that is not God -- in creation, in redemption, and in eschatological consummation -- can serve as the basis for a supralapsarian argument. He illustrates this thesis with detailed case studies of the Christologies of Schleiermacher, Dorner, and Barth. He concludes that the most fruitful supralapsarian strategy is rooted in the notion of eschatological consummation, taking interpersonal interaction with God to be the goal of the incarnation. He goes on to develop his own argument along these lines, concluding in an eschatological vision in which God is visually, audibly, and tangibly present in the midst of God's people.

How do you picture the Holy Spirit? A vague fuzzy cloud? An invisible, impersonal force? The Bible is clear that the Holy Spirit is a person. Scripture gives us strong word pictures of the Spirit as wind, fire, a counsellor, anointing oil and more - and these eight Bible studies will help us explore those. 8 sessions: Wind/Breath, Ezekiel 37:1-14 Water, John 4:1-14, 7:37-39 Fire, Acts 2:1-4 Pledge, Ephesians 1:11-14 Counsellor, John 14:15-27 Advocate, Romans 8:26-27 Anointing Oil, Luke 4:14-21 Giver of Gifts, I Corinthians 12:1-11

Panentheism has gained popularity among contemporary thinkers. This belief system explains that "all is in God"; as a soul is related to a body, so God is related to the world. In "Panentheism--The Other God of the Philosophers," philosopher and theologian John Cooper traces the growth and evolution of this intricate theology from Plotinus to Alfred North Whitehead to the present.
This landmark book--the first complete history of panentheism written in English--explores the subject through the lens of various thinkers, such as Plato, Jurgen Moltmann, Paul Tillich, Wolfhart Pannenberg, and Charles Hartshorne, and discusses how panentheism has influenced liberation, feminist, and ecological theologies. Cooper not only sketches the evolution of panentheism but also critiques it; ultimately, he offers a defense of classical theism. This book is for readers who care deeply about theology and think seriously about their faith.

Theology is the discipline that mainly explores what it means to know God. This book therefore explores the topic Knowing God, from an interdisciplinary theological perspective, against the backdrop of celebrating 500 years of Reformation which was celebrated in 2017. Approaching the issue from the perspectives of their respective theological disciplines, scholars ask what it means to know God, how people of faith have sought to know God in the past, and indeed whether, or to what extent, such knowledge is even possible. The project team approached scholars from different disciplines in theology, affiliated with the Evangelische Theologische Faculteit, Leuven in Belgium, to reflect on the topic. This provided the faculty with the opportunity for fruitful interdisciplinary collaboration and reflection as we attempted to look at the same topic from the vantage point of our own subject and expertise. Although we all come from the same institution, and are bounded by our common motto Fides Quaerens Intellectum, we have allowed ourselves to roam freely within the flats of the castle of theological inquiry and have enjoyed meeting each other in the courtyard and beautiful gardens on the occasion of our interdisciplinary seminars each year. The authors do not promise to provide in this book a coherently designed interdisciplinary approach. The authors promise to show you the beauty of each of our disciplinary rooms within the castle. The authors also show you their own dialogicality, and even paradox, but also their own dialogical harmony. This book will be of utmost value to anyone seeking to explore the question of 'Knowing God', or even the 'Knowability of God', from the perspective of all the main classical subdisciplines in theology (e.g. Old and New Testament Studies; Church History; Systematic Theology; Practical Theology and Missiology).

In The Life and Work of Ernesto de Martino: Italian Perspectives on Apocalypse and Rebirth in the Modern Study of Religion, Flavio A. Geisshuesler offers a comprehensive study of one of Italy's most colorful historians of religions. The book inserts de Martino's dramatic life trajectory within the intellectual climate and the socio-political context of his age in order to offer a fresh perspective on the evolution of the discipline of religious studies during the 20th century. Demonstrating that scholarship on religion was animated by moments of fear of the apocalypse, it brings de Martino's perspective into conversation with Mircea Eliade, Claude Levi-Strauss, and Clifford Geertz in order to recover an Italian approach that promises to redeem religious studies as a relevant and revitalizing field of research in the contemporary climate of crisis.

Contemporary theologians have mostly abandoned the doctrine of divine impassibility of earlier centuries, and in its place affirm divine passibility, exploring the significance of God's emotional experience, especially the question of divine suffering. Rob Lister engages with this important theological issue, arguing that God's nature is fundamentally impassible and yet profoundly impassioned. After outlining the history of the doctrine in the views of influential figures such as Augustine, Aquinas and Luther, Lister carefully examines modernity's growing rejection of impassibility and subsequent evangelical responses. With regard for holistic synthesis, Lister proposes a theological model based on fresh insights into the historical, biblical and theological dimensions of this key doctrine. He also pays specific attention to important Christological implications. Lister's stimulating analysis will be of value to all with a serious interest in this challenging subject and the related issues.

"My desire is that this book may help readers to know more fully the God of biblical revelation and, as a result, to proclaim God as the God of life". Who is God? Where is God? How are we to speak of God? Gutierrez looks at these classic questions through a review of the Bible, and his answers challenge all Christians to a deepening of faith.

Biblical scholarship today is divided between two mutually exclusive concepts of the emergence of monotheism: an early-monotheistic Yahwism paradigm and a native-pantheon paradigm. This study identifies five main stages on Israel's journey towards monotheism. Rather than deciding whether Yahweh was originally a god of the Baal-type or of the El-type, this work shuns origins and focuses instead on the first period for which there are abundant sources, the Omride era. Non-biblical sources depict a significantly different situation from the Baalism the Elijah cycle ascribes to King Achab. The novelty of the present study is to take this paradox seriously and identify the Omride dynasty as the first stage in the rise of Yahweh as the main god of Israel. Why Jerusalem later painted the Omrides as anti-Yahweh idolaters is then explained as the need to distance itself from the near-by sanctuary of Bethel by assuming the Omride heritage without admitting its northern Israelite origins. The contribution of the Priestly document and of Deutero-Isaiah during the Persian era comprise the next phase, before the strict Yahwism achieved in Daniel 7 completes the emergence of biblical Yahwism as a truly monotheistic religion.

The Oxford Handbook of Natural Theology is the first collection to consider the full breadth of natural theology from both historical and contemporary perspectives and to bring together leading scholars to offer accessible high-level accounts of the major themes. The volume embodies and develops the recent revival of interest in natural theology as a topic of serious critical engagement. Frequently misunderstood or polemicized, natural theology is an under-studied yet persistent and pervasive presence throughout the history of thought about ultimate reality - from the classical Greek theology of the philosophers to twenty-first century debates in science and religion. Of interest to students and scholars from a wide range of disciplines, this authoritative handbook draws on the very best of contemporary scholarship to present a critical overview of the subject area. Thirty eight new essays trace the transformations of natural theology in different historical and religious contexts, the place of natural theology in different philosophical traditions and diverse scientific disciplines, and the various cultural and aesthetic approaches to natural theology to reveal a rich seam of multi-faceted theological reflection rooted in human nature and the environments within which we find ourselves.

For centuries, philosophers have addressed the ontological question of whether God exists. Most recently, philosophers have begun to explore the axiological question of what value impact, if any, God's existence has (or would have) on our world. This book brings together four prestigious philosophers, Michael Almeida, Travis Dumsday, Perry Hendricks and Graham Oppy, to present different views on the axiological question about God. Each contributor expresses a position on axiology, which is then met with responses from the remaining contributors. This structure makes for genuine discussion and developed exploration of the key issues at stake, and shows that the axiological question is more complicated than it first appears. Chapters explore a range of relevant issues, including the relationship between Judeo-Christian theism and non-naturalist alternatives such as pantheism, polytheism, and animism/panpsychism. Further chapters consider the attitudes and emotions of atheists within the theism conversation, and develop and evaluate the best arguments for doxastic pro-theism and doxastic anti-theism. Of interest to those working on philosophy of religion, theism and ethics, this book presents lively accounts of an important topic in an exciting and collaborative way, offered by renowned experts in this area.

This book offers a welcome solution to the growing need for a common language in interfaith dialogue; particularly between the three Abrahamic faiths in our modern pluralistic society. The book suggests that the names given to God in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and the Quran, could be the very foundations and building blocks for a common language between the Jewish, Christian and Islamic faiths. On both a formal interfaith level, as well as between everyday followers of each doctrine, this book facilitates a more fruitful and universal understanding and respect of each sacred text; exploring both the commonalities and differences between the each theology and their individual receptions. In a practical application of the methodologies of comparative theology, Maire Byrne shows that the titles, names and epithets given to God in the sacred texts of Judaism, Christianity and Islam contribute towards similar images of God in each case, and elucidates the importance of this for providing a viable starting point for interfaith dialogue.

The ancient religious thinker Tertullian asked: "What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?", implying that faith and philosophy have nothing to say to each other. The history of this dialogue has shaped the intellectual dialogue from the very beginning right up to the present. In this book, Jerry H. Gill has traced the dynamics of this dialogue and in the conclusion he has offered his own answer to the questions it raises.

In modern times, the Christian faith's claim to possess a unique revelation of God has faced numerous challenges. A central issue has been the role of the Bible. While some have continued to defend the view that the Bible, inspired by God, is his self-revelation in a direct way, others have argued that God's revelation is to be found primarily in his actions, or in the person of Jesus Christ, rather than in the Scriptures as such. In a fresh approach, Peter Jensen argues that it is better to follow the biblical categories of the knowledge of God and the gospel, rather than to start from 'revelation' as an abstract concept. First Dr Jensen focuses on revelation, whether 'special' or 'general', from the viewpoint of the knowledge of God through the gospel. Next, he examines the nature and authority of Scriptures and our approach to reading it. Finally, he turns to the revelatory work of the Holy Spirit through illumination. The result is a creative and compelling exposition of the evangelical understanding of revelation for the contemporary scene.