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

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.

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

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.

Arguing for a new direction in postmodern theological thinking, away from the liberalism and nihilism of those who name themselves postmodern theologians, the book collects together for the first time important examples of the work of continental critical theorists relevant to the study of theology or religious studies. Each essay or excerpt is selected, edited and introduced by a leading exponent of that person's work, an exponent who is also a leading figure in contemporary theological debate.

"The Postmodern God" introduces students and researchers to contemporary thought and how it could affect tomorrow's theology. In addition, the "Reader" offers examples of the work currently being done in theology and ethics which engages with contemporary critical theory. The material in this section treats some of the major themes of this new critical theology - the reappraisal of liturgy, theologies of the city, feminism and religious discourse, postmodern ethics, radical hermeneutics and theology beyond metaphysics.

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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.

"In the realm of doctrine the Christian Church has always recognised a twofold task: one concerning the Church itself; the other concerning the outside world, the world of doubt and unbelief. Although, at a time like the present, the conflict with unbelief and false ideologies may seem the more urgent one, yet the first task is always fundamental. For how can the Church do justice to her missionary calling in an un-Christian world if she is not herself clear about the content of her message? All down her history the Christian Church has given much thought to the basis, meaning and content of the message she has received - and is bound to proclaim; this process of reflection is what we mean by 'dogmatics'." From the Introduction: Available in three volumes, this is one of the great works of 20th Century theology. Brunner presents a profoundly biblical systematic theology, finding a path between the ideas of Barth and Bultmann. The first volume covers the doctrine of God. After an introduction setting out the nature of Dogmatics, the main topics covered are the nature of God and the Will of God.

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.

Which is more reasonable: believing in God or not believing in God? Can any of the usual arguments actually show that God does or does not exist?

The Rationality of Theism is a controversial collection of brand new papers by thirteen outstanding philosophers and scholars. Its aim is to offer comprehensive theistic replies to the traditional arguments against the existence of God, offering a positive case for theism as well as rebuttals of recent influential criticisms of theism.

Part One addresses foundational issues about religious language and epistemology. Part Two focuses on the traditional arguments for God's existence, including the ontological argument, the cosmological argument, the teleological argument, and miracles. In Part Three, the contributors turn their attention to the two main arguments against theism: the divine attributes and the argument from evil.

Overall, the book contends that theism rather than atheism offers the more rationally plausible and defensible explanatory viewpoint. It will be of serious interest to anyone studying or working in philosophy of religion.

In a scientific age we are becoming historically conscious and realising how many of our contemporary problems cannot be solved without an understanding of their historical perspective. The author explains here how the conception of world-history is routed in Christianity and how biblical examination can help to explain our history.

Recent discoveries in physics, cosmology and biochemistry have captured the public imagination and made the Design Argument - the theory that God created the world according to a specific plan - the object of renewed scientific and philosophical interest. This accessible but serious introduction to the design problem brings together new perspectives from prominent scientists and philosophers including Paul Davies, Richard Swinburne, Sir Martin Rees, Michael Behe, Elliot Sober and Peter van Inwagen.
It probes the relationship between modern science and religious belief, considering their points of conflict and their many points of similarity. Is the real God of creationism the 'master clockmaker', who sets the world's mechanism on a perfectly enduring course, or a miraculous presence who continually intervenes in and alters the world we know? Are science and faith, or evolution and creation, really in conflict at all? Expanding the parameters of a lively and urgent debate, God and Design considers how perennial questions of origin continue to fascinate and disturb us.

Throughout the Bible, divine interaction with humanity is portrayed in almost embarrassingly human terms. God sees, hears, thinks, feels, runs, rides chariots, laughs, wields weapons, gives birth, and even repents. Many of these descriptions, taken at face value, seem to run afoul of classical thought about God's qualities of divine simplicity, transcendence, omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, and, especially, immutability. Traditionally, such representations have been seen as "accommodations" to human intellectual and moral limitations. They allowed God to be more comprehensible but did not actually describe any "real" part of His character, being, or interaction with humanity. References to God seeing or hearing, for example, are not deemed to represent real acts, as God is all-knowing. This view is largely based on the Aristotelian conception of metaphors: they are rhetorical devices and should not be taken literally. Since the 1970s, our understanding of the ways in which metaphors convey meaning has become much more sophisticated. We are better able to unlock the function of "human" acts of God within the Bible. This book aims to explore the biblical metaphor of divine sight in Genesis and how current conceptions of metaphorical function can enrich our reading of the text and its theology. Brian C. Howell is a lecturer for the West of England Ministerial Training Course, and a freelance writer, lecturer, speaker, saxophonist, and music teacher. "Learned and lucid, this fine work explores the nature of anthropomorphic language in Scripture and Christian theology. What it means to describe God in human terms has long been controversial, but this book tackles the issues in an irenic and scholarly way. Using modern insights into metaphors, Howell examines the places in Genesis where God is said to see to produce a most illuminating discussion that biblical scholars and systematic theologians should not overlook." Gordon Wenham, Trinity College, Bristol.

Recent discoveries in physics, cosmology and biochemistry have captured the public imagination and made the Design Argument - the theory that God created the world according to a specific plan - the object of renewed scientific and philosophical interest. This accessible but serious introduction to the design problem brings together new perspectives from prominent scientists and philosophers including Paul Davies, Richard Swinburne, Sir Martin Rees, Michael Behe, Elliot Sober and Peter van Inwagen.
It probes the relationship between modern science and religious belief, considering their points of conflict and their many points of similarity. Is the real God of creationism the 'master clockmaker', who sets the world's mechanism on a perfectly enduring course, or a miraculous presence who continually intervenes in and alters the world we know? Are science and faith, or evolution and creation, really in conflict at all? Expanding the parameters of a lively and urgent debate, God and Design considers how perennial questions of origin continue to fascinate and disturb us.

The Rationality of Theism is a controversial collection of brand new papers by thirteen outstanding philosophers and scholars. Its aim is to offer comprehensive theistic replies to the traditional arguments against the existence of God, offering a positive case for theism as well as rebuttals of recent influential criticisms of theism.

This book presents the first accessible analysis of Spinoza's Tractatus Theologico-politicus, situating the work in the context of Spinoza's general philosophy and its 17th-century historical background. According to Spinoza it is impossible for a being to be infinitely perfect and to have a legislative will. This idea, demonstrated in the Ethics, is presupposed and further elaborated in the Tractatus Theologico-politicus. It implies not only that on the level of truth all revealed religion is false, but also that all authority is of human origin and that all obedience is rooted in a political structure. The consequences for authority as it is used in a religious context are explored: the authority of Scripture, the authority of particular interpretations of Scripture, and the authority of the Church. Verbeek also explores the work of two other philosophers of the period - Hobbes and Descartes - to highlight certain peculiarities of Spinoza's position, and to show the contrasts between their theories.

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.

This title was first published in 2000. Hope in Barth's Eschatology presents a critical investigation and survey of Karl Barth's writings, particularly his Church Dogmatics IV.3, in order to locate the character and nature of 'hope' within Barth's eschatology. Arguing that Barth, with his form of hope that refuses to shy away from the dark themes of the 'tragic vision', could be seen to undermine certain tragic sensibilities necessary for a healthy account of hope, John McDowell locates Barth within the context of larger traditions of theological thinking, and influential accounts of Christian hope, examining the work of Steiner, MacKinnon, Pannenberg, Rahner, Moltmanm and others. Addressing the relative neglect that Barth commentators have paid to eschatological themes, McDowell maintains that to miss what Barth is doing in his eschatology, is to seriously misunderstand Barth's broader theological sense. This book offers a significant contribution to the ongoing task of understanding Barth's theology whilst developing a way of reading hope and eschatology that, ultimately, places some critical questions at Barth's door.

This criticism of theism, especially monotheism, questions the assumption that rejecting God means rejecting religion. Drawing on Western philosophical critiques of religion and non-theistic Eastern religions, Ray Billington shows how a religion without God could work.
The concept of religion without God has informed not only the theories of Nietzsche, Kant and Spinoza, but also expressions of belief in Indian and Chinese religions-Hinduism, Theravada Buddhism Zen and Taoism. Concluding with a look at the "the future of faith," this is a wide ranging and lucidly-written look at what it means to "have faith" and how this is distinct from religious belief.
Ray Billington is an experienced and respected author on Eastern religion and philosophy. His books include Understanding Eastern Philospophy, Living Philosophy and East of Existentialism, all published by Routledge. He also writes occasional journalism most notably as a contributor to The Guardian's 'Face to Faith' column. An ex-Methodist minister and onetime chaplain with the SAS, he has now retired from his post as Principal Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of the West of England.

God, Man and the Church is a penetrating examination of the human relationship - both as an individual and in society - with God. For Solovyev, personal religion can only be satisfied in social religion. Private prayer finds its fulfilment in the Church's liturgy, and the Church is the highest expression of humanity's religious aspirations. Here Solovyev's mystical understanding of the Church provides the basis for a fundamental analysis of the idea of the state from a Christian viewpoint. During the years after its first publication in Russian in 1885, God, Man and the Church rapidly established a reputation as a seminal work of Russian theology. Donald Attwater's translation, first published in 1937 and which made the work available in the English language for the first time, has become a classic in its own right.

Monotheism is usually considered Judaism's greatest contribution to world culture, but it is far from clear what monotheism is. This work examines the notion that monotheism is not so much a claim about the number of God as a claim about the nature of God. Seeskin argues that the idea of a God who is separate from his creation and unique is not just an abstraction but a suitable basis for worship. He examines this conclusion in the contexts of prayer, creation, sabbath observance, repentance, religious freedom, and love of God. Maimonides plays a central role in the argument both because of his importance to Jewish self-understanding and because he deals with the question of how philosophic ideas are embodied in religious ritual.

Instead of introducing students to Christian theology through its doctrines, this text introduces it through discussion of church practices and of the experience of everyday Christian life. By taking a practical approach it encourages students to see that the goal of inquiring after God should be spiritual growth as well as intellectual understanding, enabling them to integrate their faith with their thinking.

The classic and contemporary texts brought together here introduce students to Christian life and thought across the centuries, opening up a dialogue between past and present. These discussions will acquaint readers with Christian claims about God, Jesus Christ, scripture, human nature, sin and salvation in everyday life as well as in communal ecclesial practice. The points of entry examined are study, science, work, affliction, repentance and forgiveness, prayer, love of neighbor, scripture, meditation, preaching, the Christian sacrament of the altar, Christian art, and reflective discernment.

The Triune God, together with the forthcoming second volume, The Works of God, develops a compendious statement of Christian theology in the tradition of a medieval summa, or of such modern works as those of Schleiermacher and Barth. Theology, as it is understood here, is the Christian church's continuing discourse concerning her specific communal purpose; it is the hermeneutic and critical reflection internal to the church's task of speaking the gospel, to the world as message and to God in petition and praise. This volume and its successor are thus dedicated to the service of the one church of the creeds; it is for no particular denomination or confession. The interlocutors of this work's analyses and proposals are drawn from wherever in the ecumenical tradition a question may lead: to theologians and traditions ancient, medieval, or modern; Eastern or Western; Catholic or Protestant.

Ambitious, controversial and absorbing, God and the Universe tackles the highly-charged issue of God's relevance in the light of new scientific thinking on cosmology. Engaging with poststructuralism, ethics, mathematics, and philosophy through the ages, this persuasively argued book re-invigorates religious debate for the new millennium.

Immanuel Kant is often referred to as the 'philosopher of Protestantism' because he provides a model for mediating successfully between a modern scientific world view and theism. This radical new reading of Kant's religious thought suggests that he is in fact more accurately read as a precursor to nineteenth-century atheism than to liberal Protestant theology.

Michalson locates major themes in Kant's philosophy that are more continuous with nineteenth-century atheism than with constructive theology. The 'problem of God' in Kant turns out to be the problem of retaining authentic references to God in light of the 'self-inventing' character of Kant's theory of human freedom. The book explores several ways in which this problem comes to light in Kant's philosophy, including an extended examination of Kant's own moral proof of the existence of God. Finally, Michalson suggests that, in his effort to develop a theory of human freedom consistent with his Enlightenment ideals, Kant produced a philosophical vision that ultimately absorbs heaven into earth.

In addition to providing an alternative perspective on Kant's religious thought, this book raises serious questions about the idea of theological 'mediation' which attempts to accommodate both intellectual autonomy and divine transcendence. The book will be of interest to students and scholars in philosophy, religious studies and theology with an interest in Kant, the development of modern theology or the debate over 'modernity' and its proper definition.