By examining Samuel Taylor Coleridge's and John Henry Newman's parallel approaches to the central question of Christian apologetics - the existence of God - Coleridge and Newman: The Centrality of Conscience documents more fully than ever before the extent of Coleridge's influence on Newman. Both men sought to develop an argument for God's existence by understanding conscience as the moral self-awareness that makes us human. The study provides fresh readings of three texts by Colerdige and three by Newman. The result of these comparative readings is a rhetoric that both informs and invites the reader to personal reflection.

A fully illustrated, full-color book that, through a blending of story, scripture, and theology, tackles questions of sin, hell, and vengeance in such a way that readers are led to transformation and healing in the midst of a loving, merciful, and saving God.

Recent years have seen a rise in the number and variety of interpretational approaches to understanding revelation, including culturalist, sociological, literary, psychoanalytical, historical, political, philosophical, and feminist. But do these approaches all necessarily make sense when applied to religious texts? This is the first book of its kind, offering a sustained philosophical treatment of religious hermeneutics. Jorge Gracia provides a balanced guide to a topic that continues to draw heated debate in philosophy, theology, religion, sociology, history, and literary studies.

Few ideas have excited greater interest among theologians in recent decades than the idea of 'participation'. In thinking about creation, it is the notion that everything comes from, and depends upon, God, inviting the language of sharing, or of an exemplar and its images; in thinking about redemption, it points to the restoration of that image, and is expressed in the language of communion with God and with the redeemed community. In this volume, Andrew Davison considers these themes in unprecedented breadth, investigating the fundamental character of participation as it can be applied to a wide range of theological topics. Exploring what it means to know, to love, to do good, and to live together well, he shows how these ideas animate a particular understanding of human life and how we relate to the world around us. His book offers the most comprehensive survey of participation to date, contributing to detailed discussions of these themes among academic theologians.

The doctrine of the Trinity is one of the cornerstones of Christianity. In Jesus and the Father, Kevin Giles wrestles with questions about the Trinity that are dividing the evangelical community: What is the error called 'subordinationism'? Is the Son eternally subordinated to the Father in function? Are the Father and the Son divided or undivided in power and authority? Is the Father-Son-Spirit relationship ordered hierarchical or horizontal? How should the Father and the Son be differentiated to avoid the errors of modalism and subordinationism? What is the relationship between the so-called economic Trinity and the immanent Trinity? Does the Father-Son relationship in the Trinity prescribe male-female relationships in the home and the church? 'Kevin Giles points out serious problems in the teaching that the Son is eternally subordinated to the Father and argues effectively for the full eternal equality within the Trinity. This book should be read by all who wrestle with the complex but crucial doctrine of the Trinity.'---Millard Erickson, author, Christian Theology'By showing that subordinationism is a revival of a heresy that was systematically rejected by the non-Arian Church, the author reinstates the classical orthodox doctrine of the Trinity in all its scriptural majesty and grandeur.'---Gilbert Bilezikian, professor emeritus, Wheaton College'Giles skillfully places before us the stark choice which each generation of theologians must face: will we allow the Bible to speak its message about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to us, or will we use the Bible to advance our own agenda? This important book deserves to be widely read and carefully considered.'---Paul D. Molnar, professor of systematic theology, St. John's University

This book provides a comprehensive, critical study of the oldest and most famous argument for the existence of God: the Cosmological Argument. Professor Rowe examines and interprets historically significant versions of the argument from Aquinas to Samuel Clarke and explores the major objections that have been advances against it. Beginning with analyses of the Cosmological Argument as expressed by Aquinas and Duns Scotus in the thirteenth century, the author seeks to uncover, clairfy , and critically explore the philosophical concepts and theses essential to the reasoning exhibited in the principal versions of the Cosmological Argument. The major focus of the book is on the form that the argument takes in the eighteenth century, principally in the writings of Samuel Clarke. The author concludes with a discussion of the extent to which the Cosmological Argument may provide a justification for the belief in God. In a new Preface, the author offers some updates on his own thinking as well as that of others who have grappled with this topic.

This concise, well-structured survey examines the problem of evil in the context of the philosophy of religion. One of the core topics in that field, the problem of evil is an enduring challenge that Western philosophers have pondered for almost two thousand years. The main problem of evil consists in reconciling belief in a just and loving God with the evil and suffering in the world. Michael Peterson frames this issue by working through questions such as the following: What is the relation of rational belief to religious faith? What different conceptual moves are possible on either side of the issue? What responses have important thinkers advanced and which seem most promising? Is it possible to maintain religious commitment in light of evil? Peterson relies on the helpful distinction between moral and natural evil to clarify our understanding of the different aspects of the problem as well as avenues for response.The overall format of the text rests on classifying various types of argument from evil: the logical, the probabilistic, the evidential, and the existential arguments. Each type of argument has its own strategy which both theists and nontheists must recognize and develop. Giving both theistic and nontheistic perspectives fair representation, the text works through the issues of whether evil shows theistic belief to be inconsistent, improbable, discredited by the evidence, or threatened by personal crisis.Peterson explains how defensive strategies are particularly geared for responding to the logical and probabilistic arguments from evil while theodicy is an appropriate response to the evidential argument. Theodicy has traditionally been understood as the attempt to justify belief in a God who is all-powerful and all-good in light of evil. The text discusses the theodicies of Augustine, Leibniz, Hick, and Whitehead as enlightening examples of theodicy. This discussion allows Peterson to identify and evaluate a rather dominant theme in most theodicies: that evil can be justified by designating a greater good. In the end, Peterson even explores how certain types of theodicy, based on specifically Christian renditions of theism, might provide a basis for addressing the existential problem of evil. The reader of this book gains not only an intellectual grasp of the debate over God and evil in professional philosophy but also the personal benefit of thinking through one of the most important issues in human life.

Peter Hitchens lost faith as a teenager. But eventually finding atheism barren, he came by a logical process to his current affiliation to an unmodernised belief in Christianity. Hitchens describes his return from the far political left. Familiar with British left-wing politics, it was travelling in the Communist bloc that first undermined and replaced his leftism, a process virtually completed when he became a newspaper's resident Moscow correspondent in 1990, just before the collapse of the Communist Party. He became convinced of certain propositions. That modern western social democratic politics is a form of false religion in which people try to substitute a social conscience for an individual one. That utopianism is actively dangerous. That liberty and law are attainable human objectives which are also the good by-products of Christian faith. Faith is the best antidote to utopianism, dismissing the dangerous idea of earthly perfection, discouraging people from acting as if they were God, encouraging people to act in the belief that there is a God and an ordered, purposeful universe, governed by an unalterable law.

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

For the Spirit, being somewhat forgotten is an occupational hazard. The Holy Spirit is so actively involved in our lives that we can take his presence for granted. As they say, familiarity breeds contempt. Just as we take breathing for granted, we can take the Holy Spirit for granted simply because we constantly depend on him. Like the cane that soon feels like an extension of the blind man's own body, we too easily begin to think of the Holy Spirit as an extension of ourselves. Yet the Spirit is at the center of the action in the divine drama from Genesis 1:2 all the way to Revelation 22:17. The Spirit's work is as essential as the Father's and the Son's, yet the Spirit's work is always directed to the person and work of Christ. In fact, the efficacy of the Holy Spirit's mission is measured by the extent to which we are focused on Christ. The Holy Spirit is the person of the Trinity who brings the work of the Father, in the Son, to completion. In everything that the Triune God performs, this perfecting work is characteristic of the Spirit. In Rediscovering the Holy Spirit, author, pastor, and theologian Mike Horton introduces readers to the neglected person of the Holy Spirit, showing that the work of God's Spirit is far more ordinary and common than we realize. Horton argues that we need to take a step back every now and again to focus on the Spirit himself-his person and work-in order to recognize him as someone other than Jesus or ourselves, much less something in creation. Through this contemplation we can gain a fresh dependence on the Holy Spirit in every area of our lives.

Atheology is the intellectual effort to understand atheism, defend the reasonableness of unbelief, and support nonbelievers in their encounters with religion. This book presents a historical overview of the development of atheology from ancient thought to the present day. It offers in-depth examinations of four distinctive schools of atheological thought: rationalist atheology, scientific atheology, moral atheology, and civic atheology. John R. Shook shows how a familiarity with atheology's complex histories, forms, and strategies illuminates the contentious features of today's atheist and secularist movements, which are just as capable of contesting each other as opposing religion. The result is a book that provides a disciplined and philosophically rigorous examination of atheism's intellectual strategies for reasoning with theology. Systematic Atheology is an important contribution to the philosophy of religion, religious studies, secular studies, and the sociology and psychology of nonreligion.

Atheism is often considered to be a negative or pessimistic belief which is characterized by a rejection of values and purpose and a fierce opposition to religion. This Very Short Introduction sets out to dispel the myths that surround atheism, arguing that most western atheism is so-named only because it exists in a tradition in which theism is the norm. Julian Baggini instead asserts that atheists are typically naturalists, who believe that meaning and morality are possible in a finite, natural world. This second edition includes a new chapter covering the impact and legacy of 'New Atheism', a powerful new movement in atheism in the early twenty first century, driven by books from authors such as Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, and which is having a profound impact across the Western world. Baggini also considers whether East Asia has been historically atheist, and atheism in recent European history, before exploring the position of atheists around the world today. Throughout, the book presents an intellectual case for atheism that rests as much upon positive arguments for its truth as on negative arguments against religion. Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Ramon Harvey revisits the Muslim theologian Abu Mansur al-Maturidi (d. 333/944) from Samarqand and puts his system, and that of the Maturidi school, into lively dialogue with modern thought. Combining rigorous study of Arabic Maturidi texts with insights from Husserl's phenomenology and analytic theology, Harvey explores themes from epistemology and metaphysics to the nature of God and specific divine attributes (omniscience and wisdom, creative action, divine speech and the Qur'an). His systematic treatment of these topics shows that a contemporary Muslim philosophical theology, or kalam jadid, can be true to the past, yet dynamic in the present, and can provide original and constructive answers to perennial theological questions.

Centuries before anyone could make sense of these fantastic warnings, the prophets declared that the mysteries of Revelation would not be understood until the Last Days. Verse by verse and chapter by chapter, Jack Van Impe, reviews John's portrait of history's final claims.

Peter Vardy's much acclaimed introduction to the study of ideas about God -- now revised and updated. A clear, well-written guide to philosophical thinking about God. Starting with the question of what it means to say we believe in God, and looking at the nature of truth, Peter Vardy goes on to examine ideas about God and their influence on Christian thinking. Peter Vardy takes the reader through the arguments, using amusing illustrations and analogies. He writes for the lay person or student, not assuming any specialist knowledge, and not imposing any particular view. 'This is about the best elementary textbook in the philosophy of God I have come across... an extremely useful book.' Hugh Meynell, The Tablet 'This is a masterpiece of coherence. Step by step the reader is led clearly and humorously through the philosophical maze which confuses our thinking about God.' Linda Smith, Head of Religious Education, King's College, London

Starting from the assumption that God exists and that the whole of creation - not just of this world but of the entire universe -is his work, the author of this important book tries to demonstrate the extent of this divine achievement and to explain its laws by analysing different aspects of knowledge -science, religion, asceticism, mysticism and prayer. For Moyila Ngonda creation is not just a chance combination of atoms or a chemical process but it originates from a higher intelligence responsible for the creation and operation of everything in the universe, all of which demonstrate the greatness and power of God who created them and who maintains them in a proper balance. The author starts by defining God and explaining the many manifestations of the divine, including ideas of heaven, angels, Satan and hell. He refers throughout to all religions, quoting from the Quran, the Bible and the Bhagavad Gita. He describes in some detail the universe and the relative insignificance of our sun and our planet. He examines the human body and mind: will, soul, the different religions, races and racism and our place in the environment. He explains science and its laws, asceticism, magic, telepathy, clairvoyance and psychic development. He studies the role and nature of prayer. The range of his knowledge is impressive. The book is a treasure trove of interesting facts.

Is it possible to prove or disprove God's existence? Arguments for the existence of God have taken many different forms over the centuries: in The Non-Existence of God, Nicholas Everitt considers all of the arguments and examines the role that reason and knowledge play in the debate over God's existence. He draws on recent scientific disputes over neo-Darwinism, the implication of 'big bang' cosmology, and the temporal and spatial size of the universe; and discusses some of the most recent work on the subject, leading to a controversial conclusion.

A central problem for the non-specialist reader over the works of Hume today is that his ellifluous 18th century prose appears strange to our eyes and ears... What follows, therefore, is what the present editors did about it. The central purpose is to open to Hume's original target audience his writings on religious affairs; a subject which was of central importance to him - and which remains of perennial interest to humankind. David Hume's writings on history, politics and philosophy have shaped thought to this day. His bold scepticism ranged from common notions of the 'self' to criticism of standard theistic proofs. He insisted on grounding understandings of popular religious beliefs in human psychology rather than divine revelation, and he aimed to disentangle philosophy from religion in order to allow the former to pursue its own ends. In this book, Professors David W Purdie and Peter S Fosl decipher some of Hume's most challenging texts for the modern reader, while preserving the sharp intellect and undaunted nerve for which Hume is famous. Hume's spirit is brought alive for contemporary times and his writing is made accessible for its intended audience: the general public.

Diese begriffsgeschichtliche Untersuchung widmet sich der spatantiken Diskussion zwischen Christen und ihren Zeitgenossen uber Gottes Vorsehung (Pronoia). Die UEberzeugung, dass Gott sich um die Welt kummert, war in der Spatantike allgemein verbreitet. Umstritten war in der philosophischen Diskussion des 2. und 3. Jahrhunderts, wie man sich dieses Wirken vorzustellen hat: als allgemeinen Sinnhorizont, als gute Ordnung oder als individuelle Fursorge? Die Autorin analysiert die Bedeutung des Wortes Pronoia und zeichnet eine Diskussion aus der Perspektive der christlichen Autoren nach (vor allem: Justin, Clemens von Alexandrien, Origenes, Euseb von Caesarea).

A train stops on the tracks in the middle of the night and a lone woman steps out, following a call from deep in the forest. In these six richly imagined short stories, Andrea Lundgren explores a liminal space where the town meets the wilderness and human consciousness meets something more animalistic. From foxes to blue whales to angels, the creatures that roam through these stories spark a desire for something more in their human counterparts: a longing for transformation. Whether dealing with familial tensions, romantic troubles, or a crisis of faith, their human anguish is explored with psychological depth and poetic insight in the earthy, evocative world of Lundgren's northern borderlands.

A.W. Tozer's Follow-up to The Knowledge of the Holy We were created in the image of God, and to understand who we are, we need to understand who God is. His very character and nature are reflected through us. Unless we fully grasp who we are, we'll never become all God wants us to be. Delighting in God is the message Tozer intended to be the follow-up to The Knowledge of the Holy. He demonstrates how the attributes of God--those things God has revealed about himself--are a way to understand the Christian life of worship and service. We are here to serve and adore him, but we can only fulfill that role by acknowledging who he is, which is the essence of the Christian life and the source of all our fulfillment, joy, and comfort.

The Jewish Museum Frankfurt presents The Female Side of God, based on numerous objects from cultural history and contemporary works of art. In a close reading of these works, the exhibition catalogue introduces this hardly known and oftentimes even 'suppressed tradition'. Comprehensible descriptions of these visual representations of a female deity, which can be found throughout the centuries, alternate with five essays, resulting from an interdisciplinary symposium of the research association 'Religious Positionings'. A highly topical publication, comprising faith, science, and art. Text in English and German.

In recent years, modern science has discovered that the underlying structural details of the entire universe have been "fine-tuned" toward the goal of producing biological life. Revolutionizing our conception of the relationship between science and religion, God and the New Cosmology uses scientific evidence to prove the existence of God beyond a reasonable doubt.

A Theology for a Mediated God introduces a new way to examine the shaping effects of media on our notions of God and divinity. In contrast to more conventional social-scientific methodologies and conversations about the relationship between religion and media, Dennis Ford argues that the characteristics we ascribe to a medium can be extended and applied metaphorically to the characteristics we ascribe to God-just as earlier generations attempted to comprehend God through the metaphors of father, shepherd, or mother. As a result, his work both challenges and bridges the gap between students of religion and media, and theology.