Signs of God reveals why discussion of the nature of miracles is of central rather than marginal importance where belief in God is concerned. Miracles cannot be shunted to one side as an embarrassing hangover from a 'pre-scientific age'. Miracles have played an important role in the history of all the major world religions, and many religious believers claim that they continue to do so. Yet they have also been criticized from a philosophical viewpoint as incompatible with a belief in laws of nature, and those who seek to have their religious beliefs properly attuned to the modern world often prefer to do without them. This accessible book examines the nature of miracles both in philosophical and historical terms, and concludes that, whether or not miracles happen, it is difficult to see how religious belief could survive without them.

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."

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.

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.

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."

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:

• 
  
• the natural sciences
• 
  
• history
• 
  
• theology
• 
  
• 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.

How should we approach the psychological study of religion, and how relevant is classical psychoanalysis, identified with the writings of Sigmund Freud, to the understanding of religion? Freud's writings on religion have been discussed often and continue to attract attention and debate. Psychoanalysis and Theism starts with an essay by Adolf Grunbaum, one of the world's leading philosophers of science and an incisive critic of Freud's work. Grunbaum looks at Freud's general claims about the psychological mechanisms involved in religion and finds them lacking. Then, in a surprising turn, Grunbaum judges some of Freud's interpretations of concrete religious ideas and practices to be not only cogent, but indispensable. When it comes to the case of the belief in Virgin Birth, Grunbaum finds an Oedipal interpretation to be our only choice. This remarkable essay is the stimulus for a symposium with nine senior scholars, coming from the fields of philosophy, psychology, sociology, and psychoanalysis, who present their critical reflections on how we should study religion, how we should treat Freud's ideas, and what the future directions in psychological research on concrete religious behavior should be. The contributors bring to this effort their varied fields of expertise, from analytical philosophy to experimental psychology. Of special interest are essays which deal with the Virgin Birth doctrine and its possible psychological sources and with the potential for future psychoanalytic studies of faith and ritual. Other essays focus on Freud's conscious and unconscious motivations for studying religion as well as the hidden biases and lacunae found in the social science literature on religious practices. This volume adds a unique combination of critical and knowledgeable voices to the debate on Sigmund Freud's legacy."

Alone among Thomas Aquinas' works, the Summa Theologiae contains well-developed and integrated discussions of metaphysics, ethics, law, human action, and the divine nature. The essays in this volume, by scholars representing varied approaches to the study of Aquinas, offer thorough, cutting-edge expositions and analyses of these topics and show how they relate to Aquinas' larger system of thought. The volume also examines the reception of the Summa Theologiae from the thirteenth century to the present day, showing how scholars have understood and misunderstood this key text - and how, even after seven centuries of interpretation, we still have much to learn from it. Detailed and accessible, this book will be highly important for scholars and students of medieval philosophy and theology.

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.

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

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.

Mackenzie Allen Philips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever. In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant The Shack wrestles with the timeless question, Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain? The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him. You'll want everyone you know to read this book

This book makes a major contribution to contemporary theological and philosophical debates, bridging scriptural and metaphysical approaches to the triune God.
Bridges the gap between scriptural and metaphysical approaches to biblical narratives.
Retrieves Aquinas's understanding of theology as contemplative wisdom.
Structured around Aquinas's treatise on the triune God in his 'Summa Theologiae'.
Argues that intellectual contemplation is part of a broader spiritual journey towards a better understanding of God.
Contributes to the current resurgence of Thomistic theology in both Protestant and Catholic circles.

The issue of whether or not there is a God is one of the oldest and most widely disputed philosophical questions. It is a debate that spreads far across the range of philosophical questions about the status of science, the nature of mind, the character of good and evil, the epistemology of experience and testimony, and so on. In this book two philosophers, each committed to unambiguous versions of belief and disbelief, debate the central issues of atheism and theism. Smart opens the debate by arguing that theism is philosophically untenable and seeks to explain metaphysical truth in the light of total science. Haldane continues the discussion by affirming that the existence of the world, and the possibility of our coming to have knowledge of it, depend upon the existence of a creating, sustaining, personal God. This is followed by replies, where each philosopher has the chance to respond and to defend his position. This second edition contains new essays by each philosopher, responding to criticisms and building on their previous work.

In "Transcendence," thinkers from John Milbank, Graham Ward, and Kevin Hart, to Thomas Carlson, Slavoj Zizek, and Jean-Luc Marion have come together to create the definitive analysis of this key concept in modern theological and philosophical thought.

Discussing problems of narrative, communication, and intelligibility within diverse contexts such as Walt Whitman's poetry, Blanchot's primal imagery, and biblical narrative, Transcendence brings together a list of thinkers to create the definitive analysis of the subjec

How do we learn about God? In an age of competing world-views, what is the basis of the Christian claim to offer the truth about God, the world and ourselves? David Heywood charts a path through the study of human knowledge, showing how the insights of theology, philosophy and psychology complement and amplify one another, and bringing the experience of revelation within the scope of the study of human learning. He shows the relationship between human psychology and the work of the Holy Spirit and demonstrates the credibility of the Christian claim to a transforming knowledge of God in Jesus Christ. Offering a new model for the relationship of theology to the natural and social sciences, David Heywood shows how the claim of Christian theology to deal in issues of universal truth can be upheld. For Christian education, this book provides a theological rationale for the use of methods of teaching and learning of educationally proven effectiveness.

Contents:
1. Reasoning about God 2. Reason and reformed epistemology 3. Ontological arguments 4. Cosmological arguments 5. Arguments to and from design 6. Arguments to and from miracles 7. Arguments from morality 8. Arguments to and from religious experience 9. Naturalism, evolution and rationality 10. Prudential arguments 11. Arguments from scale 12. Problems about evil 13. Omnipotence 14. Eternity and omnipresence 15. Omniscience 16. Conclusion

Is a thoroughly Christian and biblically informed doctrine of creation compatible with widely held conclusions of modern science, especially biology? For Darrel R. Falk, this is not just an abstract question but one with which he has personally wrestled. A professor of biology, Falk brings together his biblically based understanding of creation and the most current research in biology. The result of his efforts to acknowledge the validity of science and the authority of Scripture is a new paradigm for relating the claims of science to the truths of Christianity. Written with the undergraduate student in mind, this book nonetheless will help anyone who is looking for a place to stand in the creation-evolution debate, fearful that they'll have to choose between intellectual integrity and the faith of the church. Calling for charitable discussions within the church, Falk shows how an original and ongoing interaction of God with creation is fully reconcilable with the kinds of development identified by current biological science.

Peter Byrne's study of God and realism offers a critical survey of issues surrounding the realist interpretation of theism and theology. Byrne presents a general argument for interpreting the intent of talk about God in a realist fashion and argues that judging the intent of theistic discourse should be the primary object of concern in the philosophy of religion. He considers a number of important ideas and thinkers supporting global anti-realism, and finds them all wanting. After the refutation of global anti-realism, Byrne considers a number of important arguments in favour of the notion that there is something specific to talk about God which invites an anti-realist interpretation of it. Here he looks at verificationism, the writings of Don Cupitt, forms of radical feminist theory and the ideas of D.Z. Phillips. The book concludes with a discussion of whether theology as a discursive, academic discipline can be interpreted realistically. Offering a comprehensive survey of the topic and of the leading literature in the field, this book presents key arguments for exploring issues brought to bear upon the realism debate. Students and scholars of philosophy of religion, philosophy of language, metaphysics, theory of knowledge and theology, will find this an invaluable new contribution to the field.

Most people, believers and nonbelievers alike, are unfamiliar with the variety and force of arguments for the impossibility of God. Yet over recent years a growing number of scholars have been formulating and developing a series of increasingly powerful arguments that the concept of God, as variously understood by the world's major religions and leading theologians, is contradictory in many ways, and therefore God does not and cannot exist. This unique anthology brings together for the first time most of the important arguments for the impossibility of God that have been published. The collection includes papers and book selections by J. L. Mackie, Quentin Smith, Theodore Drange, Michael Martin, and many other distinguished scholars. The editors provide a general introduction and brief summaries of the arguments to help the reader grasp the crucial issues involved. Both students and teachers of philosophy and the philosophy of religion will find this anthology to be an indispensable resource.

Systematic Theology is the capstone of Robert Jenson's long and distinguished career as a theologian, being a full-scale systematic/dogmatic theology in the classic format. This is the second and concluding volume of the work, and considers the works of God, examining such topics as the nature and role of the Church, and God's works of creation.

"

The Divine Attributes" is an engaging analysis of the God of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam from the perspective of rational theology.

This ambitious study rationally explores the nature of God, differentiates the idea of God from other historical ideas of the divine, and identifies the core qualities of a maximally great, or perfect, being. It includes detailed discussions of the fundamental divine attributes, such as divine power, knowledge, and goodness. It also addresses whether God is to be understood as eternal, within or outside of time, existing necessarily or contingently, and whether God is to be understood as a physical or a spiritual substance.

The authors conclude that, properly understood, the concept of God is coherent, although certain attributes that some traditional theologians ascribe to God should be rejected.

Nothing within the world has the power to make the world continue; yet it is intrinsic to the temporal world that it does continue, and does not exist merely instantaneously. On this basis, the author renews St. Thomas's way of conceiving God as the immediate principle of existence, but does this de novo, never drawing upon any authority, but working within the exigencies of contemporary general philosophy. The philosophy of religion is for him never a separate discipline but the fruit of a proper working through of the inter-related problems of the philosophy of mind and action, epistemology, and logical theory with the correlative restructuring of metaphysics.

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.