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.

Modernism's theological project was an attempt to explain two things: firstly, how faith might enable persons to experience their lives as hanging together, even in the face of disintegrating forces like injustice, tragedy, and luck; and secondly, how one could see such faith, and so a life held together by it, as self-expressive. Modern theologians such as Kant, Schleiermacher, Hegel, Ritschl, and Tillich thus offer accounts of how one's life would have to hang together such that one could identify with it; of the oppositions which stand in the way of such hanging-together; of God as the one by whom oppositions are overcome, such that one can have faith that one's life ultimately hangs together; and of what such faith would have to be like in order for one to identify with it, too. So understood, modern theology not only sheds light on faith's potential role in enabling persons to identify with their lives, but stands in unexpected continuity with contemporary 'contextual' theologies. This book offers clear, careful readings of modernism's key figures in order to explain their relevance to practical concerns and to contemporary understandings of faith.

Covering 30,000 years of goddess worship, this fascinating book is the first and most comprehensive biographical dictionary devoted exclusively to mythological deities. Spanning 30,000 years of goddess worship, Goddesses in World Mythology provides access to nearly 11,500 entries from many cultures: Greek, Celtic, Indian, African, Chinese, Slavic, Mesoamerican, Japanese, and more. Organized alphabetically within geographical regions such as Egypt, the Far East, Oceania, North America, and the Himalayan region, entries identify each goddess by her most common anthropological, mythological, or religious name, then identifies the culture recognizing that goddess, summarizing her powers or attributes, often providing a brief story characterizing her personality and motivations. The most comprehensive and comprehensible work of its kind, Goddesses in World Mythology features two indexes that divide the goddesses by name and attribute, over 2,000 cross references that guide the reader to other entries, and an extensive bibliography. This unique and easy to use guide shows that goddesses were not just wives, sisters, mothers, or fertility figures, but supreme deities themselves. Includes two indexes, arranged by name and attribute, and an extensive bibliography for further research Extensive cross references show the surprisingly intricate relationship of certain goddesses across cultures, regions, and time Nearly 11,500 entries with coverage of goddesses from countries and legend across the globe

Why do bad things happen in our world? Why does God allow suffering? If he exists, why doesn't he do something? Of all the hurdles to faith, suffering must be the greatest. But how do we answer the question of 'Why?' in a credible, satisfying way? In this revised and updated edition of an award-winning book that has helped thousands in their journey of faith, scientist Sharon Dirckx explores some of the most agonizing and bewildering questions we all ask. With compassionate warmth and insight, she offers advice to help us cope with suffering and difficulties. Alongside, she interweaves her own experiences and the personal stories of individuals who have faced some of life's toughest challenges, showing us that it is possible to believe in a powerful loving God and acknowledge the reality of evil and suffering. Why? is a book for anyone who has questioned how suffering and a compassionate God can coexist. It will help you better understand the nature of God in Christianity, and will equip you to answer the question of 'Why?' with confidence and clarity. It is also an ideal apologetics book to give to friends and family just beginning on their faith journey or who are struggling and looking for answers. If you have ever asked or wondered why God allows suffering, Sharon Dirckx's gentle wisdom in Why? will help you see life from a new perspective - one that makes more, not less, sense of our hurting world.

Union and Distinction in the Thought of St Maximus the Confessor presents the writings of a key figure in Byzantine theology in the light of the themes of unity and diversity. The principle of simultaneous union and distinction forms the core of Maximus' thought, pervading every area of his theology. It can be summarized as: Things united remain distinct and without confusion in an inseparable union. As Melchisedec T r nen shows, this master theme also resonates in contemporary theological and philosophical discussions.

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).

Is God the eternal and immutable presence that Christianity has commonly proclaimed him to be - the Rock of Ages? John Butler offers a different perspective through a personal exploration of the changing images of God within the main streams of the Christian faith over a period of some four thousand years. Butler takes the reader on a kaleidoscopic odyssey that begins with the pantheon of deities in Bronze Age Canaan from which the God of the early Old Testament emerged and ends with the radical images of God that were surfacing in the late twentieth century. The story is told largely through the record of the Bible and the ideas of key writers and thinkers whose authority or persuasiveness have allowed their visions of God to become embedded in the major Christian traditions. The book concludes with a discussion of the central question raised by the analysis: why is it that people across the ages have claimed to have experienced so many different and sometimes contradictory faces of the Christian God? Written in an elegant and engaging style, this informative book will appeal to Christians, atheists, students, and those who are simply interested in the cultural and intellectual history of God. John Butler is Emeritus Professor at the University of Kent and a guide at Canterbury Cathedral. He is the author of the acclaimed 'Quest for Becket's Bones' and the prize-winning 'Red Dean of Canterbury'. 'This beautifully written book tells the fascinating story of the evolving portrait of the Christian God from Abraham to the present day. It is an illuminating read for those who feel the need to cross their fingers whenever they say the Nicene Creed - and for many who don't ' Richard Llewellin, former Bishop at Lambeth

Icon of modern-day fundamentalist movements, firebrand religious purist, tireless polemicist against the intellectual schools of his timeathe Ibn Taymiyya we know is a thinker we often associate with hard attitudes and dogmatic stances. Yet there is another Ibn Taymiyya that stands out from the pages of his work, the thinker who fashions himself as a master of the via media and as a defender of the harmony between human reason and the religious faith. The aim of this book is to shed fresh light on Ibn Taymiyya's intellectual identity by a close investigation of his ethical thought. Earlier Muslim thinkers debating ethical value had been exercised by a number of core questions. What makes actions right or wrong? How do human beings know it? And what is God's relationship to the evaluative standards discerned by the human mind? An investigation of Ibn Taymiyya's engagement with such questions has much to teach us about his intellectual program and particularly about the role of reason and the linchpin concept of human nature (fitra) within this program. It also has much to teach us about Ibn Taymiyya's relationship to the intellectual landscape of his time, bringing us up against a rich tapestry of ethical discussions unfolding within theology, philosophy and legal theory in the classical period. At the same time, a close reading of Ibn Taymiyya's ethics invites us to confront not only the content of his thought but its form, and more particularly those features of his writing that fracture our efforts to unify his thought.

A thorough analysis and discussion of the nature of time and eternity, focusing on the timelessness of God. After considering two theories of time in the light of modern science and philosophy, Padgett argues for a process notion of time. The traditional doctrine of absolute divine timelessness is incompatible with God's action in the world, if the process view of time is true. After an historical and biblical survey of the doctrine of eternity, Padgett rejects both the everlasting and the timeless theory of eternity, seeking to defent the intuition that God transcends time. He argues for a third, mediating view: God is in some sense temporal, yet is the ground of time, the Lord of time, and relatively timeless.

After the publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859, theologians were faced with the dilemma of God creating through evolution. Suddenly, pain, suffering, untimely death and extinction appeared to be the very tools of creation, and not a result of the sin of humanity. Despite this paradigm shift, the question of non-human suffering has been largely overlooked within theodicy debates, overwhelmed by the extreme human suffering of the twentieth century. This book redresses this imbalance by offering a rigorous academic treatment of the questions surrounding God and the suffering of non-human animals. Combining theological, philosophical, and biblical perspectives, this book explores the relationship between God and Creation within Christian theology. First it dismantles the popular theological view that roots violence and suffering in the animal kingdom in the fall of humanity. Then, through an exploration of the nature of love, it affirms that there are multiple reasons to suggest that God and creation can both be "good", even with the presence of violence and suffering. This is an innovative exploration of an under-examined subject that encompasses issues of theology, science, morality and human-animal interactions. As such, it will be of keen interest to scholars and academics of religion and science, the philosophy of religion, theodicy, and biblical studies.

This book examines the post-9/11 God debate in the West. Through a close study of prominent English God debaters Richard Dawkins, Karen Armstrong, Christopher Hitchens, and Terry Eagleton, Adrian Rosenfeldt demonstrates that New Atheist and religious apologist ideas and arguments about God, science, and identity are driven by mythic autobiographical narratives and Protestant or Catholic cultural heritage. This study is informed by criticism of the New Atheist polemic as being positivistic, and the religious apologists as propagating "sophisticated theology." In both cases, the God debaters are perceived as disassociating themselves from human lived experience. It is through reconnecting the God debaters' intellectual ideas to their cultural and social background that the God debate can be grounded in a recognisable human reality that eludes reductive distinctions and disembodied abstractions.

Metaphors for God's Time in Science and Religion examines the exploratory work of metaphors for time in astrophysical cosmology, chaos theory, evolutionary biology and neuroscience. Stephen Happel claims that the Christian God is intimately involved at every level of physical and biological science. He compares how scientists and theologians both generate stories, metaphors and symbols about the universe and asks "who is the God who invents me?"

Exploring the rich range of meanings that Shakespeare finds in the natural world, this book fuses ecocritical approaches to Renaissance literature with recent thinking about the significance of religion in Shakespeare's plays. MacFaul offers a clear introduction to some of the key problems in Renaissance natural philosophy and their relationship to Reformation theology, with individual chapters focusing on the role of animals in Shakespeare's universe, the representation of rural life, and the way in which humans' consumption of natural materials transforms their destinies. These discussions enable powerful new readings of Shakespeare's plays, including A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, King Lear, Macbeth, The Tempest, The Winter's Tale, and the history plays. Proposing that Shakespeare's representation of the relationship between man and nature anticipated that of the Romantics, this volume will interest scholars of Shakespeare studies, Renaissance drama and literature, and ecocritical studies of Shakespeare.

These poems reflect a journey from a past delineated by racism, trauma and violence towards a present life of peace and intense natural beauty. Permeated with nostalgia and loss; songs of an immigrant community alienated in their own land, but pierced with fierce hope, faith in redemption, and a determination that we should all belong.

The Archetype of the Dying and Rising God in World Mythology is the first global treatment of the dying and rising god archetype since that classification was called into serious doubt in the final decades of the twentieth century. While assaults on the concept have focused on the Classical and ancient Near Eastern (Biblical) traditions, this study goes beyond but also includes these areas to encompass world mythology. Beginning with an interrogation of the most influential criticisms, the author then examines evidence for the archetype's validity by analyzing dying and rising god myths from ancient Near Eastern, Classical, and non-Classical sources from around the world. He treats implications of the archetype for religious studies, literature, and psychology, both in discussing the myths themselves and in separate chapters dedicated to these fields. The focused treatment on single myths makes this book a useful reference source. At the same time, its inductive approach to evidence provides a conclusive argument on the question with applications that warrant reading it from cover to cover. Additional distinctive features of this book include a thematic interpretation of T. S. Eliot's Waste Land, a new perspective on the Jungian archetypes, and a call for a neo-archetypal approach to literary criticism.

Dr Nick Hawkes gathers evidence from science, history, and mathematics to seek out the signature of God. By surveying the various fields of study, he gathers a mass of evidence, concluding that faith in God is reasonable and that the evidence invites it. Addressing the big questions of origins and meaning, Hawkes considers the cosmos and the arguments for a Creator behind creation. He looks at biology, and the ideas of Darwin and Dr Richard Dawkins. He examines the significance of suffering and the phenomenon of mathematics - the code by which we understand how things work. He sifts through history and how it has been 'molded'. He considers the nature of truth, and whether it is ever knowable, and if so how; and he takes a long, hard look at ideas about the afterlife. What we believe is important. It becomes our identity, something we stake our very lives upon. Who Ordered The Universe? is essential reading for those battling with identity and their place in the world. It is the ideal gift for a non-Christian friend.

Following the footsteps of the Masters of Carmel, Fr. Marie-Eugene opens up the paths of contemplation and holiness to all, in the midst of ordinary life. This is a classic for all interested in Carmelite spirituality.

God Talk: The Problem of Divine-Human Communication is a landmark publication, the first book to address the problem from the perspective of communication studies. In ten thought-provoking essays, communication scholars confront the "God Problem" by describing diverse approaches they have used in field research to study groups that claim to hear God while also balancing respect for informants' claims with their own personal beliefs. *** The intelligence of this exceptional book is a perfect ten. The theoretical depth of every chapter reflects research brilliance. The authors' clarity with ideas, ancient and contemporary, is knowledge production at its substantive best. -Clifford G. Christians, Research Professor of Communications Emeritus, University of Illinois Whether your interests include communication theory, rhetorical criticism, ethnography, or theology, regardless of your faith tradition-or absence of a faith tradition-it is a stimulating read. I highly recommend it. -Steven A. Beebe, Regents' and University Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Texas State University; Past President, National Communication Association As a religious communication scholar who also identifies as a theist-scholar, I found every chapter empowering, as they encourage the field to reconsider its positionality towards an area of scholarship that attempts to "measure the immeasurable." This book is a must! -Tina M. Harris, Professor, Endowed Chair of Race, Media, and Cultural Literacy, Louisiana State University God Talk: The Problem of Divine-Human Communication is a timely contribution to religious communication and communication studies. The authors examine the absence of God in communication theory and in engagement with others. I highly recommend this relevant work. -Ronald C. Arnett, Professor Emeritus, Duquesne University A much-needed contribution to the growing body of research at the intersection of communication and religion, this scholarly volume gathers work from established and emerging scholars to address a long-standing issue in the field of religious communication: the conundrum of divine-human communication. -Janie M. H. Fritz, Duquesne University; Executive Director, Religious Communication Association

God Talk: The Problem of Divine-Human Communication is a landmark publication, the first book to address the problem from the perspective of communication studies. In ten thought-provoking essays, communication scholars confront the "God Problem" by describing diverse approaches they have used in field research to study groups that claim to hear God while also balancing respect for informants' claims with their own personal beliefs. *** The intelligence of this exceptional book is a perfect ten. The theoretical depth of every chapter reflects research brilliance. The authors' clarity with ideas, ancient and contemporary, is knowledge production at its substantive best. -Clifford G. Christians, Research Professor of Communications Emeritus, University of Illinois Whether your interests include communication theory, rhetorical criticism, ethnography, or theology, regardless of your faith tradition-or absence of a faith tradition-it is a stimulating read. I highly recommend it. -Steven A. Beebe, Regents' and University Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Texas State University; Past President, National Communication Association As a religious communication scholar who also identifies as a theist-scholar, I found every chapter empowering, as they encourage the field to reconsider its positionality towards an area of scholarship that attempts to "measure the immeasurable." This book is a must! -Tina M. Harris, Professor, Endowed Chair of Race, Media, and Cultural Literacy, Louisiana State University God Talk: The Problem of Divine-Human Communication is a timely contribution to religious communication and communication studies. The authors examine the absence of God in communication theory and in engagement with others. I highly recommend this relevant work. -Ronald C. Arnett, Professor Emeritus, Duquesne University A much-needed contribution to the growing body of research at the intersection of communication and religion, this scholarly volume gathers work from established and emerging scholars to address a long-standing issue in the field of religious communication: the conundrum of divine-human communication. -Janie M. H. Fritz, Duquesne University; Executive Director, Religious Communication Association

Twenty years on from its original appearance, this ground-breaking first volume in N. T. Wright's magisterial series, 'Christian Origins and the Question of God', still stands as a major point of reference for students of the New Testament and early Christianity. This latest impression has been completely reset to make Wright's elegant and engrossing text more readable. 'The sweep of Wright's project as a whole is breathtaking. It is impossible to give a fair assessment of his achievement without sounding grandiose: no New Testament scholar since Bultmann has even attempted - let alone achieved - such an innovative and comprehensive account of New Testament history and theology.' Richard B. Hays

Baruch Spinoza’s Ethics is a dense masterpiece of sustained argumentative reasoning. It earned its place as one of the most important and influential books in Western philosophy by virtue of its uncompromisingly direct arguments about the nature of God, the universe, free will, and human morals.

Though it remains one of the densest and most challenging texts in the entire canon of Western philosophy, Ethics is also famous for Spinoza’s unique approach to ordering and constructing its arguments. As its full title – Ethics, Demonstrated in Geometrical Order – suggests, Spinoza decided to use the rigorous format of mathematical-style propositions to lay out his arguments, just as the Ancient Greek mathematician Euclid had used geometrical propositions to lay out the basic rules of geometry.

In choosing such a systematic method, Spinoza’s masterwork shows the crucial aspects of good reasoning skills being employed at the highest level. The key use of reasoning is the production of an argument that is well-organised, supports its conclusions and proceeds logically towards its end. Just as a mathematician might demonstrate a geometrical proof, Spinoza sought to lay out a comprehensive philosophy for human existence – an attempt that has influenced generations of philosophers since.