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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > General > Philosophy of religion
Humanism, Antitheodicism, and the Critique of Meaning in Pragmatist
Philosophy of Religion develops a distinctive approach to
pragmatist philosophy of religion, and more generally to pragmatist
investigations of the human search for meaning, by emphasizing what
may be considered two closely interrelated main features of this
tradition: humanism and antitheodicism. Humanism here emphasizes
the need to focus on religion as a human practice within human
concerns of meaningfulness and significance, as distinguished from
any metaphysical search for cosmic meaning. Antitheodicism, in
turn, stands for the refusal to accept any justification, divine or
secular, for the experiences of meaninglessness that individuals
undergoing horrendous suffering may have. Developing a critical
form of pragmatism emphasizing these ideas, Sami Pihlstroem
explores the relations between pragmatism and analytic philosophy
in the philosophy of religion, especially regarding the question of
religious meaning, as well as the significance of literature for
philosophy of religion, with particular emphasis on William James's
pragmatism.
On the Intrinsic Value of Everything is an illuminating
introduction to fundamental questions in ethics. How--and to
what--we assign value, whether it is to events or experiences or
objects or people, is central to ethics. Something is intrinsically
valuable only if it would be valued for its own sake by all fully
informed, properly functioning persons. Davison defends the
controversial view that everything that exists is intrinsically
valuable to some degree. If only some things are intrinsically
valuable, what about other things? Where and how do we draw the
cutoff point? If only living creatures are intrinsically valuable,
what does this imply for how we value the environment? If
everything has intrinsic value, what practical implications does
this have for how we live our lives? How does this view fit with
the traditional theistic idea that God is the source of goodness
and truth? Both critics and proponents of the concept of intrinsic
value will find something of interest in this careful investigation
of the basic value structure of the world.
This book provides the first detailed study in English of the
religious philosophy of Vasilii Rozanov, one of the most
influential and controversial thinkers of Russia's Silver Age. It
examines his subversion of traditional Russian Orthodoxy, including
his reverence for the Creation, his focus on the family, and his
worship of sex.Rozanov is one of the towering figures of Russian
culture, a major influence on thinkers and writers such as Bakhtin,
Maiakovskii, and Mandelshtam, as well as many European writers. He
critiqued Orthodox theology, and wrote extensively on philosophy,
literature, and politics, and helped reform marriage and divorce
laws.His enormous contribution to Russian thought has been largely
neglected, and much of his work has been misunderstood. Ure
addresses this by examining the basis of Rozanov's religious
philosophy, the Creation of the Earth and the Book of Genesis.>
This book synthesizes Jacques Derrida's hauntology and spectrality
with affect theory, in order to create a rhetorical framework
analyzing the felt absences and hauntings of written and oral
texts. The book opens with a history of hauntology, spectrality,
and affect theory and how each of those ideas have been applied.
The book then moves into discussing the unique elements of the
rhetorical framework known as the rhetorrectional situation. Three
case studies taken from the Christian tradition, serve to
demonstrate how spectral rhetoric works. The first is fictional,
C.S. Lewis 'The Great Divorce. The second is non-fiction, Tim
Jennings 'The God Shaped Brain. The final one is taken from
homiletics, Bishop Michael Curry's royal wedding 2018 sermon. After
the case studies conclusion offers the reader a summary and ideas
future applications for spectral rhetoric.
This text presents and addresses the philosophical movement of
antiphilosophy working thru the texts of Christian thinkers such as
Pascal and Kierkegaard. The author as influenced by Alain Badiou,
portrays these Christian thinkers as of a subjective dimension
negating the possibility of an objective quest for truth. The claim
here is that antiphilosophy is abundant in the eyes of these two
thinkers who frame the thought event as represented by
Christianity, ultimately resigning itself to more or less the
opposite of philosophy itself. Readers will discover why
philosophical reason should never be convinced by that which denies
its very authority. Subjecting faith to the perils of philosophical
analysis, confronting the philosophical tradition with the truth of
the Christian faith, and occupying the space between the two: such
are the challenges facing an antiphilosophy of Christianity. This
text will appeal to researchers and students working in continental
philosophy, philosophy of religion and those in religious studies
who want to investigate the links between Christianity and
antiphilosophy.
In this book Jaco Gericke is concerned with different ways of
approaching the question of what, according to the Hebrew Bible, a
god was assumed to be. As a supplement to the tradition of
predominantly linguistic, historical, literary, comparative,
social-scientific and related ways of looking at the research
problem, Gericke offers a variety of experimental philosophical
perspectives that aim to take a step back from the scholarly
discussion as it has unfolded hitherto in order to provide a new
type of worry when looking at the riddle of what the biblical texts
assumed made a god divine. Consisting of a brief history of
philosophical interpretations of the concepts of whatness and
essence from Socrates to Derrida, the relevant ideas are adapted
and reapplied to look at some interesting metaphysical oddities
arising from generic uses of elohim/el/eloah as common noun in the
Hebrew Bible. As such the study seeks to be a prolegomenon to all
future research in that, instead of answering the question
regarding a supposed nature of divinity, it aims to complicate it
beyond expectation. In this way a case is made for a more nuanced
and indeterminate manner of constructing the problem of what it
meant to call something a god.
This is an accessible survey of the most important thinkers on
Religion, from Aquinas, through Kant to William James. Arguments
concerning the existence and nature of God have been a staple of
western philosophy for over 2,000 years. "Philosophy of Religion:
The Key Thinkers" offers a comprehensive historical overview of
this fascinating field. Nine specially commissioned essays
introduce and explore the contributions of those philosophers who
have shaped the subject and the central issues and arguments
therein. The book reconstructs the history of the philosophy of
religion, clearly illustrating the most important attempts to
address such crucial issues as the ontological argument, the
cosmological argument, the problem of evil, miracles, the moral
argument, the design argument, religious experience and the idea of
god. Thinkers covered include Anselm, Aquinas, Pascal, Hume, Kant,
Paley and James. Crucially the book demonstrates why the ideas and
arguments these key thinkers developed are still relevant in
contemporary thought. Ideal for undergraduate students, the book
lays the necessary foundations for a complete and thorough
understanding of this fascinating subject.
Weingartner shows that an essential part of natural or
philosophical theology and even a part of theology can be treated
axiomatically. God's essence, omniscience, omnipotence, creating
activity, and all-goodness are described by axioms and by theorems
proved from them.
One of the most perplexing problems facing believers in God is the
problem of evil. The words of Epicurus put the point concisely:
"Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does
not want to. If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent. If he can,
but does not want to, he is wicked. If God can abolish evil, and
God really wants to do it, why is there evil in the world?" This is
a difficult problem to unpick and it remains an issue that
continues to concern people and inspire debate. The problem has
taken a variety of forms over the centuries; in fact, there are
numerous "problems" of evil-problems for theists but, perhaps
surprisingly, problems for non-theists as well. Evil: A Guide for
the Perplexed explores, in a rigorous but engaging way, central
challenges to religious belief raised by evil and suffering in the
world as well as significant responses to them from both theistic
and non-theistic perspectives.
Concepts such as influence, imitation, emulation, transmission or
plagiarism are transcendental to cultural history and the subject
of universal debate. They are not mere labels imposed by modern
historiography on ancient texts, nor are they the result of a later
interpretation of ways of transmitting and teaching, but are
concepts defined and discussed internally, within all cultures,
since time immemorial, which have yielded very diverse results. In
the case of culture, or better Arab-Islamic cultures, we could
analyze and discuss endlessly numerous terms that refer to concepts
related to the multiple ways of perceiving the Other, receiving his
knowledge and producing new knowledge. The purpose of this book
evolves around these concepts, and it aims to become part of a very
long tradition of studies on this subject that is essential to the
understanding of the processes of reception and creation. The
authors analyze them in depth through the use of examples that are
based on the well-known idea that societies in different regions
did not remain isolated and indifferent to the literary, religious
or scientific creations that were developed in other territories
and moreover that the flow of ideas did not always occur in only
one direction. Contacts, both voluntary and involuntary, are never
incidental or marginal, but are rather the true engine of the
evolution of knowledge and creation. It can also be stated that it
has been the awareness of the existence of multidimensional
cultural relations which has allowed modern historiography on Arab
cultures to evolve and be enriched in recent decades.
"Listening to Your iGod" revives the discussion of religion and
science and the parallels that exist between the two fields of
thought.
Author Tyler James presents his thoughts on why these two very
different schools of thought may actually complement each other at
times. Jesus taught in parables that offered parallels between
nature and God's word. Jesus himself was paralleled with nature as
well, lending credence to the idea that there is more to spreading
God's word than the obvious.
Consideration of the segregation and feud between science and
religion points to similar segregation and differences among the
world's societies and religions today. James suggests that the
world as a whole needs to gain greater maturity in order to get
past these differences and live in harmony. Moreover, this
connection is even more relevant given the impending apocalypse,
which he believes will begin in 2016.
By showing the parallels between science and religion in
"Listening to Your iGod," James hopes to lay the groundwork for
connection and harmony.
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God and Gravity
(Hardcover)
Philip Clayton; Edited by Bradford Mccall
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R1,726
R1,418
Discovery Miles 14 180
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