At least since the seventeenth century, the traditional God of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam has been under pressure to conform to the scientific worldview. Across the monotheistic traditions there has emerged a liberal conception of God compatible with a thoroughgoing naturalism. For many, this liberal new God is the only credible God. But is it a useful God? Does belief in so malleable a deity come from, or lead to, different political, moral, psychological, or aesthetic phenomena from atheism?A Plausible God evaluates the new God by analyzing the theology of three recent Jewish thinkers Mordechai Kaplan, Michael Lerner, and Arthur Greenand compares faith in the new God to disbelief in any gods. Mitchell Silver reveals what is at stake in the choice between naturalistic liberal theology and a nontheistic naturalism without gods. Silver poses the question: If it is to be either the new God or no God, what doeswhat shoulddetermine the choice? Although Jewish thinkers are used as the primary exemplars of new God theology, Silver explores developments in contemporary Christian thought, Eastern religious traditions, and New Age religion. A Plausible God constitutes a significant contribution to current discussions of the relationship between science and religion, as well as to discussions regarding the meaning of the idea of God itself in modern life.A wonderful piece of work. . . . Many wonderful passages, with very clear and original thoughts, excellently put.Daniel C. Dennett, author of Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon

At least since the seventeenth century, the traditional God of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam has been under pressure to conform to the scientific worldview. Across the monotheistic traditions there has emerged a liberal conception of God compatible with a thoroughgoing naturalism. For many, this liberal new God is the only credible God. But is it a useful God? Does belief in so malleable a deity come from, or lead to, different political, moral, psychological, or aesthetic phenomena from atheism?A Plausible God evaluates the new God by analyzing the theology of three recent Jewish thinkers Mordechai Kaplan, Michael Lerner, and Arthur Greenand compares faith in the new God to disbelief in any gods. Mitchell Silver reveals what is at stake in the choice between naturalistic liberal theology and a nontheistic naturalism without gods. Silver poses the question: If it is to be either the new God or no God, what doeswhat shoulddetermine the choice? Although Jewish thinkers are used as the primary exemplars of new God theology, Silver explores developments in contemporary Christian thought, Eastern religious traditions, and New Age religion. A Plausible God constitutes a significant contribution to current discussions of the relationship between science and religion, as well as to discussions regarding the meaning of the idea of God itself in modern life.A wonderful piece of work. . . . Many wonderful passages, with very clear and original thoughts, excellently put.Daniel C. Dennett, author of Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon

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 Suffering of the Impassible God provides a major reconsideration of the issue of divine suffering and divine emotions in the early Church Fathers. Patristic writers are commonly criticized for falling prey to Hellenistic philosophy and uncritically accepting the claim that God cannot suffer or feel emotions. Gavrilyuk shows that this view represents a misreading of evidence. In contrast, he construes the development of patristic thought as a series of dialectical turning points taken to safeguard the paradox of God's voluntary and salvific suffering in the Incarnation.

How can theology think and talk about history? Building on the work of the major twentieth-century theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar as well as entering into sharp critical debate with him, this book sets out to examine the value and the potential of a 'theodramatic' conception of history. By engaging in dialogue not only with theologians and philosophers like von Balthasar, Hegel and Barth, but with poets and dramatists such as the Greek tragedians, Shakespeare and Gerard Manley Hopkins, the book makes its theological principles open and indebted to literary forms, and seeks to show how such a theology might be applied to a world intrinsically and thoroughly historical. By contrast with theologies that stand back from the contingencies of history and so fight shy of the uncertainties and openness of Christian existence, this book's theology is committed to taking seriously the God who works in time.

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 groundbreaking, highly original work of postmodern feminist theology from one of the most important and highly regarded authors in the field.The Face of the Deep is a deconstruction of the Christian doctrine of creation from the idea that a transcendent Lord unilaterally created the universe out of nothing. Catherine Keller's impassioned, graceful meditation helps develop an alternative representation of the cosmic creative process. Drawing upon Hebrew myths of genesis, Keller posits a new theology of creation: creation from chaos, or the deep, engaging along the way the political and the mystical, the literary and the scientific, the sexual and the racial.In doing so she also draws upon the work of a number of postmodern and feminist continental philosophers including Heidegger, Donna Haraway and Luce Irigaray.
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.

Almost all Americans believe in God. But, shows Porpora, this belief has little impact on our lives. Quoting extensively from in-depth interviews with a cross-section of Americans, he finds them unable to see any meaning in life, lacking any heroes, and without a compelling moral vision. He argues that the cause of this modern malaise is our emotional estrangement from God and the sacred. In terms of emotion, he says, we are not as religious as we seem.

The late Cornelius Ernst once said that Aquinas' 'Five Ways' were 'an attempt to show how we may go on speaking of God in the ordinary world'. Nicholas Lash shows how the main contours of the Christian doctrine of God may be mapped onto principal features of our culture and its predicaments. After an introductory chapter on 'the question of God today', Nicholas Lash considers - in chapters entitled 'globalisation and holiness', 'cacophony and conversation' and 'attending to silence' - three dimensions of our contemporary predicament: globalisation, a crisis of language, and the pain and darkness of the world, in relation to the doctrine of God as Spirit, Word, and Father.

From young children, with their guileless, searching questions, to the recently bereaved, trying to make sense of tragic loss, humans wrestle with our relationship to God--and with God's essence, motivations, and power--throughout our lives: Why does God permit catastrophe and senseless tragedy, again and again? Is God's power limited in any way? Can He change the past? Does He know the future? Why does God require prayer? Why does He not provide stronger evidence of His presence? Whom does God consign to hell, and why? Does God change? Suffer? What can we make of the conflicting diversity within world religions, of the many gods of different religious traditions? Such questions engage, confront, and perplex us on a daily basis. In this rich, concise volume, leading philosophers who have long pondered God's nature and ways take on these core problems.

An appropriate motto for Augustine's great work On the Trinity is 'faith in search of understanding'. In this treatise Augustine offers a part-theological, part-philosophical account of how God might be understood in analogy to the human mind. On the Trinity can be fairly described as the first modern philosophy of mind: it is the first work in philosophy to recognize the 'problem of other minds', and the first to offer the 'argument from analogy' as a response to that problem. Other subjects that it discusses include the nature of the mind and the nature of the body, the doctrine of 'illumination', and thinking as inner speech. This volume presents the philosophical section of the work, and in a historical and philosophical introduction Gareth Matthews places Augustine's arguments in context and assesses their influence on later thinkers.

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.

The fatherhood of God has a central, if increasingly controversial, pleace in Christian thinking about God. Yet although Christians referred to God as Father from the earliest days of the faith, it was not until Athanasius in the fourth century that the idea of God as Father became a topic of sustained analysis. Dr Widdicombe shows how this development took place, starting with the great third century writer, Origen, and continuing with Arius and the famous 'Arian controversy' about the divinity of Jesus Christ, and Athanasius. In the context of modern debate, this is an illuminating and important new study, which will help us consider whether it is either desirable or possible to call God Father.

Goddesses often are labelled as one-dimensional forces of nature or fertility. In examining a number of goddesses whose primary role is sovereignty, this volume reveals the rich diversity of goddess traditions. Drawn from a variety of cultural and historical settings, the goddesses described here include Inanna of ancient Sumer; Oshun of Nigeria; and Cihuacoatl of pre-historical America.

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.

Continuing Keith Ward's series on comparative religion, this book deals with religious views of human nature and destiny. The beliefs of six major traditions are presented: the view of Advaita Vedanta that there is one Supreme Self, unfolding into the illusion of individual existence; the Vaishnava belief that there is an infinite number of souls, whose destiny is to be released from material embodiment; the Buddhist view that there is no eternal Self; the Abrahamic belief that persons are essentially embodied souls; and the materialistic position that persons are complex material organisms. Indian ideas of rebirth, karma, and liberation from samsara are critically analysed and compared with semitic belief in the intermediate state of Sheol, Purgatory or Paradise, the Final Judgement and the resurrection of the body. The impact of scientific theories of cosmic and biological evolution on religious beliefs is assessed, and a form of "soft emergent materialism" is defended, with regard to the soul. In this context, a Christian doctrine of original sin and atonement is presented, stressing the idea of soterial, as opposed to forensic, justice. The book is intended for students and sch

The possibility of proving the existence of God has fascinated thinkers and believers throughout the centuries. For those like Richard Swinburne, such a project is both worthwhile and successful. For others, like D. Z. Phillips, it is wholly inappropriate. Most critics have simply taken sides at this point; but this book argues a way forward, showing that the disparity between Swinburne and Phillips goes deeper - questioning the fundamental nature of God, the meaning of religious language, and the proper task of philosophy. The author argues that behind each thinker's work, and their attitudes towards proving the existence of God, lies fundamental trust. A positive discussion of relativism leads to a fresh analysis of the arguments for God's existence, particularly the ontological argument: Dr Messer shows that these are worthwhile - although not for the traditional reasons.

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.

One of the more important developments in the field of theology in the past two decades has been a gradual but genuine revival of interest in the doctrine of the Trinity. This fundamental Christian doctrine had been neglected by theologians, who saw it as isolated from practical Christian faith and life. Recently, however, feminist and liberationist, as well as more traditional Catholic and Protestant theologians, have come to see the Trinity not as an abstract doctrine, but instead as dealing with the living and dynamic being and acts of God, and closely related to Jesus Christ and the resurrection as the mystery of salvation. This insight has in many ways become one of the central themes of contemporary theology. In this study, Irish Presbyterian theologian John Thompson provides a survey of the wide variety of modern thought on this important theme, examining the work of figures like Karl Barth, Karl Rahner, Wolfhart Pannenberg, and Jurgen Moltmann, and their views on such issues as the relationship of the trinitarian doctrine to Scripture, the Church, philosophy, politics, and society.

Challenging the assumption that the concept of divine action is necessarily paradoxical, on the grounds that God is radically transcendent of finitude, or can perform only a master act of creating and sustaining the universe, Frank Kirkpatrick defends as philosophically credible the Christian conviction that God is a personal Agent who also acts in particular historical moments to further the divine intention of fostering universal community. Kirkpatrick claims that God and the world are distinct realities "together bound" in a mutual relationship of reciprocal historical action. In this relationship, God both acts upon and responds to human beings in specific moments in their history. The implications of this claim for understanding the biblical narrative, the problem of evil, cosmological theories, and the realism of Christian community are pursued.

What is theology? What is the nature of God? How should we think about the relationships among the persons of the Trinity? In a carefully reasoned style Gerald Bray distills the essence of these questions and introduces readers to a theological understanding of the personal, trinitarian existence of God. Engaging classical and contemporary theology along the way, Bray also leads us into conversation with the Eastern Orthodox tradition, where he finds valuable insights sadly neglected by evangelical theology. Here is a substantial introduction to the nature and subject of God, and a compelling call for evangelicals to renew their commitment to the solid foundation of a truly trinitarian theology.

This book on the Holy Spirit is the outgrowth of lectures on the topic given in Dr. Walvoord's classes at Dallas Theological Seminary. Over the years, this book has aroused considerable interest and gone through 23 printings in hardcover before prompting this new paperback edition. The Holy Spirit is an extensive treatment of the entire doctrine of pneumatology, using some 1500 Scripture citations, and is designed for theological students and pastors as well as for laypeople desiring to get a complete presentation of the third person of the Trinity who indwells all Christians.

Conversations with God took its readers on an inspirational journey, teaching them how to conduct a dialogue with God and reach a better understanding of themselves, others and the world we all inhabit. In Neale Donald Walsch's latest book, they will travel further on this journey towards a greater relationship, and ultimately friendship, with God.