While most Christians have an awareness of the third person of the Trinity, they have little experience of this personhood or power. "Experiencing the Holy Spirit" shows readers how to welcome the Holy Spirit's presence into their lives and grow in intimate relationship with Him through hearing and obeying His voice; praying and walking in the Spirit; operating in His power, gifts, signs, and wonders; and receiving His anointing. Includes more than 50 interactive exercises.

Does God exist? What are the various arguments that seek to prove the existence of God? Can atheists refute these arguments? The Existence of God: A Philosophical Introduction assesses classical and contemporary arguments concerning the existence of God:

• The ontological argument, introducing the nature of existence, possible worlds, parody objections, and the evolutionary origin of the concept of God.
• The cosmological argument, discussing metaphysical paradoxes of infinity, scientific models of the universe, and philosophers discussions about ultimate reality and the meaning of life.
• The design argument, addressing Aquinas 's Fifth Way, Darwin 's theory of evolution, the concept of irreducible complexity, and the current controversy over intelligent design and school education.

Bringing the subject fully up to date, Yujin Nagasawa explains these arguments in relation to recent research in cognitive science, the mathematics of infinity, big bang cosmology, and debates about ethics and morality in light of contemporary political and social events.

The book also includes fascinating insights into the passions, beliefs and struggles of the philosophers and scientists who have tackled the challenge of proving the existence of God, including Thomas Aquinas, and Kurt G del - who at the end of his career as a famous mathematician worked on a secret project to prove the existence of God.

The Existence of God: A Philosophical Introduction is an ideal gateway to the philosophy of religion and an excellent starting point for anyone interested in arguments about the existence of God.

There is a long tradition of discussion in the philosophy of religion about the problems and possibilities involved in talking about God. This book presents accounts of the problem within Jewish and Christian philosophy.

This rhetorical study of the various language strategies and competing worldviews involved in the 140-year argument between Biblical creationists and Darwinian evolutionists focuses on the 1860 Huxley/Wilberforce debate, the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, and the 1981 Arkansas Creation-Science Trial. When Darwin published his Origins of Species in 1859, he initiated a debate about the origin of human life and the role of God in human affairs scarcely equalled in world history. Smout traces the response of Biblical creationists to Darwinian evolutionists. Looking carefully at the stories told and the tactics used by both sides, he analyzes all available accounts of the original debate culminating in the 1860 Huxley/Wilberforce debate, the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, and the 1981 Arkansas Creation-Science Trial. Professor Smout argues that both sides in the controversy use various language strategies to persuade the culture as a whole to see the world that they see and to enact their position as public policy. As Smout illustrates, the problem is that both sides rely on an inadequate conception of language as a namer of timeless realities rather than as an instrument used by human communities to achieve their goals. He attempts to articulate a better view of language and to show how it might help solve intractable arguments such as this. He argues that we should see language as a tool that shapes what we see, and definitions of terms as political acts rather than statements of fact made by disciplinary experts. An important analysis for students and scholars in rhetoric, history, religion, and sociology.

Can religion survive Darwinism? Do scientists entering the lab or heading for the field have to bracket, or reject outright, all religious commitments and convictions? Trenchantly laying out the evidence for natural selection and carefully following and underscoring the themes and theses of Genesis, L. E. Goodman traces the historical and conceptual backgrounds of todaya (TM)s evolution controversies, revealing the deep complementarities of religion and the life sciences. Solidly researched and replete with scientific case studies, vignettes from intellectual history, and thoughtful argument, Creation and Evolution forthrightly exposes the strengths and weaknesses of todaya (TM)s polarized battle camps. Religious and scientific fundamentalisms, Goodman shows, obscure the real biblical message and distort the deepest insights and richest findings of Darwinian science.

Can religion survive Darwinism? Do scientists entering the lab or heading for the field have to bracket, or reject outright, all religious commitments and convictions? Trenchantly laying out the evidence for natural selection and carefully following and underscoring the themes and theses of Genesis, L. E. Goodman traces the historical and conceptual backgrounds of todaya (TM)s evolution controversies, revealing the deep complementarities of religion and the life sciences. Solidly researched and replete with scientific case studies, vignettes from intellectual history, and thoughtful argument, Creation and Evolution forthrightly exposes the strengths and weaknesses of todaya (TM)s polarized battle camps. Religious and scientific fundamentalisms, Goodman shows, obscure the real biblical message and distort the deepest insights and richest findings of Darwinian science.

The existence of God raises many questions. Geis' work addresses queries that arise from the gratuitous claims of empiricism in Hume, unfounded assumptions in Kant, presumptions of science, and the improbabilities it identifies in Darwinism. By focusing on number and proportion as intrinsic to material and atomic constituency, any argument from chance as instrumental to the cosmos' emergence and sustainability becomes invalidated. The arguments from contingency and the nature of intellection provide more clarity than the ratio Anselmi for acknowledging a transcendent causality, taking the reader to the problem of evil and present-day nihilism. These concepts present great, but not insuperable, difficulty for theism. Geis argues that evil, when one uses it as a means to the betterment of oneself and the world, takes on the role commensurate with the doctrine of an omnibenevolent deity. Accordingly, one can use evil as a means to a greater understanding of God, Providence, and eternal destiny.

This study is a new look at the question of how God can act upon the world, and whether the world can affect God, examining contemporary work on the metaphysics of causation and laws of nature, and current work in the theory of knowledge and mysticism. It has been traditional to address such questions by appealing to God's omnipotence and omniscience, but this book claims that this is useless unless it can be shown how these two powers "work." Instead of treating the familiar problems associated with omnipotence and omniscience, this book asks directly whether, and how, causal interactions between God and His world could occur: both between God and the physical world (miracles) and between God and other minds (mystical experience), as well as between the world and God (divine perception). Fales examines current thinking (which is diverse) about the very nature of causation, laws of nature, and agency.

Precocious and sometimes marginalized Klaus Bockmuehl's insights regarding the Spirit's agency in Christian Ethics, and therefore in our daily Christian experiences, have renewed import, now. This is an exceptional book, it introduces us for the first time to a much-neglected thinker. It also equips us with an understanding of how the Church can live ethically in power, through its relationship with the Father. In both respects it has much to offer its reader and the wider contemporary church.

In Consciousness and the Existence of God, J.P. Moreland argues that the existence of finite, irreducible consciousness (or its regular, law-like correlation with physical states) provides evidence for the existence of God. Moreover, he analyzes and criticizes the top representative of rival approaches to explaining the origin of consciousness, including John Searlea (TM)s contingent correlation, Timothy Oa (TM)Connora (TM)s emergent necessitation, Colin McGinna (TM)s mysterian "naturalism," David Skrbinaa (TM)s panpsychism and Philip Claytona (TM)s pluralistic emergentist monism. Moreland concludes that these approaches should be rejected in favor of what he calls "the Argument from Consciousness."

One of this century's most eminent theologians addresses the eternal questions of the relationship of good and evil, linking the story of Job to the lives of the poor and oppressed of our world.

What can we know about God by reason alone? Philosophical theology is the attempt to obtain such knowledge. An ancient tradition, which is perhaps more influential now than ever, tries to derive the attributes of God from the principle that God is the greatest possible being. Jeff Speaks argues that that constructive project is a failure. He also argues that the related view that the concept of God is the concept of a greatest possible being is a mistake. In the last chapter, he sketches an alternative path forward.

In Consciousness and the Existence of God, J.P. Moreland argues that the existence of finite, irreducible consciousness (or its regular, law-like correlation with physical states) provides evidence for the existence of God. Moreover, he analyzes and criticizes the top representative of rival approaches to explaining the origin of consciousness, including John Searle's contingent correlation, Timothy O'Connor's emergent necessitation, Colin McGinn's mysterian "'naturalism," David Skrbina's panpsychism and Philip Clayton's pluralistic emergentist monism. Moreland concludes that these approaches should be rejected in favor of what he calls "'the Argument from Consciousness."

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In many respects, our planet is a cosmic anomaly. Moreover, it is anomalous in such a way as to provide an excellent environment for complex life in what appears to be a largely hostile universe. Is this simply a fortunate coincidence, or does it speak of something more fundamental, even an underlying intelligent design in nature? To answer this question, we must isolate the characteristics of design and determine whether these are apparent in the natural world. The ensuing discussion will take us beyond the important contributions of mathematician and philosopher W. Dembski and biologist M. Behe to the concept of "Transitive Complexity" (TC). It is argued that where TC is present, intelligent design is the only logical, valid inference. This work presents evidence of TC in nature using the complexities of biology as its base. Planet Earth and the Design Hypothesis challenges the naturalistic assumptions of much scientific research without denigrating science. Rather, this book argues that the thirst for knowledge that drives scientific research is a basic and in a very real sense "spiritual" appetite constituting an essential part of our humanity.

How can we reconcile belief in God and Darwinism, divine action and an evolutionary world? The first book of its kind, this Reader represents the diversity of views which surround the interaction of evolutionary theory and the Christian tradition.

Ideal for students with no previous knowledge of the field, the book introduces the methodologies of the study of science and religion, and evolutionary biology, and presents the views of influential thinkers from a variety of disciplines, including:

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• the natural sciences
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• history
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• theology
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• philosophy.

From current scientific developments to contemporary philosophical perspectives, Darwin to Dawkins, Creationism to Intelligent Design, God and Evolution highlights neglected but important views, such as those of feminist scholars, and contemporary revisionists, as well as some of the best known writers in the field.

After an introduction describing the current situation, this book attempts to sketch out the contours of questions currently asked about God, to open up windows on the infinite, to get to the heart of the Christian confession about God and in the midst of pluralism of religions and agnostic culture to try and work out a way of thinking about God. The author writes: "I have learned that it is good to speak about God with some caution; not, however at the periphery of thought but from within, from the heart of our economic, legal, psychological and philosophical ideals. The book is an account of my own personal theological question. What have I found? That the questions about God open our eyes to God the Eternal One, the Most High, as a question to us." The question of God is the basis of all theology, although this does not coincide with faith or piety. The title of this book may therefore be seen as a personal plea; it is impossible to talk about God without defining one's own position.

The God Hypothesis seeks to reverse the profound misunderstanding that science has disproved the existence of God. The book does this by showing how the latest scientific evidence points in precisely the opposite direction. Drawing on the fairy tale of Goldilocks and The Three Bears, Michael A. Corey believes that the "just right" conditions that created life on earth provide overwhelming evidence of an Intelligent Designer at work. Explaining the religious ramifications of modern science in a common-sense style, Corey's compelling case for the existence of God will inspire readers to the larger meaning of life.

Darwin's greatest accomplishment was to show how life might be explained as the result of natural selection. But does Darwin's theory mean that life was unintended? William A. Dembski argues that it does not. In this book Dembski extends his theory of intelligent design. Building on his earlier work in The Design Inference (Cambridge, 1998), he defends that life must be the product of intelligent design. Critics of Dembski's work have argued that evolutionary algorithms show that life can be explained apart from intelligence. But by employing powerful recent results from the No Free Lunch Theory, Dembski addresses and decisively refutes such claims. As the leading proponent of intelligent design, Dembski reveals a designer capable of originating the complexity and specificity found throughout the cosmos. Scientists and theologians alike will find this book of interest as it brings the question of creation firmly into the realm of scientific debate.

Theories of generosity, or gift giving, are becoming increasingly important in recent work in philosophy and religion. Stephen Webb seeks to build on this renewed interest by surveying a distinctively modern and postmodern approach to the issue of generosity, and then developing a theological framework for it.

Is theology responsible to tradition or new insight? Institutional church or humanity at large? Spiritual or everyday existence? Revelation or scientific findings? In his new bookScience of God:Truth in the Age of Science, Kevin Sharpe proposes a method for doing theology which does not divorce it from the practical applications of science. Not only does this work establish that theology ought to be empirical in what it says about the world and God's relationship to it, but it also outlines a clear method for doing this. Science and theology can each share the same empirical method: when each attempts a description of any part of reality, it is relying on its own essential assumptions, or lens. When applied to theology, the method assumes the existence of God and then seeks the nature of God using falsifiable and verifiable techniques. Starting with the sciences that examine happiness-particularly biology, genetics, psychology, and social psychology-Science of God seeks to understand the spiritual nature of humans and, through it, the nature of God.

Mark Stibbe points the reader to a story Jesus told over 2,000 years ago which demonstrates the qualities of a perfect dad. More than that the story paints the clearest picture of what Jesus thought God is really like. It provides a wonderfully accessible introduction to the Father youve been waiting for and contains many new insights into a story loved by millions and known as the parable of parables.

"This is a must-read for anyone who wants a direct, honest explanation of how remarkable God who created the universe and more, loves and is interested in an exclusive, intimate, life-transforming relationship with you." - Diane Louise Jordan

I Know There is a God explores the creation of the world and the role of the Designer God. The book refutes the arguments of neo-Darwinism and Punctuated Equilibrium; expounds upon Paley's imagery of the watch as evidence that both the watch and the world need a maker; and seeks to answer Nietzsche's question of whether or not the watchmaker is still alive. Drawing from personal experiences, historical texts, and the testimonials of others, author Samuel Sih argues that the Creator God is the God of the Bible and that He is the living God who cares about all things in this world. For this belief he was imprisoned in China for more than three years. Yet, this experience did not shake his faith, but strengthened his resolve to learn more of God and faith. This book is the manifestation of this commitment.

While atheists such as Richard Dawkins have now become public figures, there is another and perhaps darker strain of religious rebellion that has remained out of sight--people who hate God.
In this revealing book, Bernard Schweizer looks at men and women who do not question God's existence, but deny that He is merciful, competent, or good. Sifting through a wide range of literary and historical works, Schweizer finds that people hate God for a variety of reasons. Some are motivated by social injustice, human suffering, or natural catastrophes that God does not prevent. Some blame God for their personal tragedies. Schweizer concludes that, despite their blasphemous thoughts, these people tend to be creative and moral individuals, and include such literary lights as Friedrich Nietzsche, Mark Twain, Zora Neale Hurston, Rebecca West, Elie Wiesel, and Philip Pullman. Schweizer shows that literature is a fertile ground for God haters. Many authors, who dare not voice their negative attitude to God openly, turn to fiction to give vent to it. Indeed, Schweizer provides many new and startling readings of literary masterpieces, highlighting the undercurrent of hatred for God. Moreover, by probing the deeper mainsprings that cause sensible, rational, and moral beings to turn against God, Schweizer offers answers to some of the most vexing questions that beset human relationships with the divine.

This is a groundbreaking, highly original work of postmodern feminist theology from one of the most important authors in the field. The Face of the Deep deconstructs the Christian doctrine of creation which claims that a transcendent Lord unilaterally created the universe out of nothing. Catherine Keller's impassioned, graceful meditation develops an alternative representation of the cosmic creative process, drawing upon Hebrew myths of creation from chaos, and engaging with the political and the mystical, the literary and the scientific, the sexual and the racial.
As a landmark work of immense significance for Jewish and Christian theology, gender studies, literature, philosophy and ecology, The Face of the Deep takes our originary story to a new horizon, rewriting the starting point for western spiritual discourse.