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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > General > Philosophy of religion
Mary Midgley is one of the most influential moral philosophers of
the twentieth century. Over the last 40 years, Midgley's writings
on such central yet controversial topics as human nature, morality,
science, animals, the environment, religion, and gender have shaped
the landscape of contemporary philosophy. She is celebrated for the
complexity, nuance, and sensibility with which she approaches some
of the most challenging issues in philosophy without falling into
the pitfalls of close-minded extremism. In turn, Midgley's
sophisticated treatment of the interconnected and often muddled
issues related to human nature has drawn interest from outside the
philosophical world, stretching from scientists, artists,
theologians, anthropologists, and journalists to the public more
broadly. Mary Midgley: An Introduction systematically introduces
readers to Midgley's collected thought on the most central and
influential areas of her corpus. Through clear and lively
engagement with Midgley's work, this volume offers readers
accessible explanation, interpretation, and analysis of the
concepts and perspectives for which she is best known, most notably
her integrated understanding of human nature, her opposition to
reductionism and scientism, and her influential conception of our
relationship to animals and the wider world. These insights,
supplemented by excerpts from original interviews with Midgley
herself, provide readers of all backgrounds with an informed
understanding and appreciation of Mary Midgley and the
philosophical problems to which she has devoted her life's work.
Christ in the Life and Teaching of Gregory of Nazianzus is the
first full-length book devoted to an overview of the Christology of
this fourth-century Father of the Church. Andrew Hofer examines the
breadth of Gregory's corpus--orations, letters, and poems (often
neglected in doctrinal studies)--to argue that Gregory's writing on
Christ can be best understood in tandem with his autobiography.
This study begins with an articulation of Gregory's theology of the
Word in which words come from the Word who became incarnate. Hofer
then offers a close reading of how Gregory writes to or about
Christ in the poetry known as "on himself." Within a three-part
study of "autobiographical Christology," Hofer explores the
philosophical background of Gregory's rhetoric for what he calls
the "mixtures" of Christ and himself. He then elucidates this
autobiographical concern in Gregory's famous Ep. 101, a landmark
text in the Christological controversies. Thirdly, Hofer considers
how Gregory celebrates the mysteries of Christ in the festal
orations. Before the book's epilogue, a chapter describes how
Gregory wrote of Christ for his pastoral ministry. Throughout the
work, Hofer demonstrates the importance in Gregory's writings of
the language of blending (such as in the Greek word krasis,
rejected by the Council of Chalcedon to describe the Incarnation).
This book thus offers a unique perspective on the one known as "the
Theologian" in Chalcedon's acts and in subsequent Christian
tradition.
Ernst Troeltsch was a theologian and sociologist but he was also a
philosopher of culture. He was concerned with the "spirit of the
modern world" throughout most of his academic life and chose to
investigate a number of critical issues which he believed were
especially problematic for the modern world. This book is an
exploration of many of the key issues. It begins with an
explanation of what Troeltsch believed the "spirit of the modern
world" to be and then to explaining the debt that Troeltsch owed to
Friedrich Schleiermacher for an understanding of the modern world.
Chapters are then devoted to Troeltsch's investigations into issues
such as the relationship between church and state, the role of
natural law, the problems of historicism and pessimism, and it
concludes with his observations about politics in war and in
revolution. This work will be of interest to those concerned with
understanding the modern world.
Adolf Grunbaum is one of the giants of 20th century philosophy of
science. This volume is the first of three collecting his most
essential and highly influential work. The essays collected in this
first volume focus on three related areas. They discuss scientific
rationality-the problem of what it takes for a theory to be called
scientific, and ask whether it is plausible to draw a clear
distinction between science and non-science as was famously
proposed by Karl Popper. They delve into the debate between
determinism and indeterminism, in both science and in the
humanities. Grunbaum defends the position of the Humane
Determinist, which then leads to a thorough criticism of the
current theological approaches to ethics and morality-where
Grunbaum defends an explicit Secular Humanism-as well as of
prominent theistic interpretations of twentieth century physical
cosmologies. The second volume is devoted to Grunbaum's writings on
the Philosophy of Physics and Space-Time, and the third to his
lectures on the Philosophy of Psychology and Psychoanalysis,
including his 1985 Gifford Lectures, which are to be published for
the first time.
The book re-examines the religious thought and receptions of the
Syrian poet Abu l-'Ala' al-Ma'arri (d.1057) and one of his best
known works - Luzum ma la yalzam (The Self-Imposed Unnecessity), a
collection of poems, which, although widely studied, needs a
thorough re-evaluation regarding matters of (un)belief. Given the
contradictory nature of al-Ma'arri's oeuvre and Luzum in
particular, there have been two major trends in assessing
al-Ma'arri's religious thought in modern scholarship. One presented
al-Ma'arri as an unbeliever and a freethinker arguing that through
contradictions, he practiced taqiya, i.e., dissimulation in order
to avoid persecution. The other, often apologetically, presented
al-Ma'arri as a sincere Muslim. This study proposes that the notion
of ambivalence is a more appropriate analytical tool to apply to
the reading of Luzum, specifically in matters of belief. This
ambivalence is directly conditioned by the historical and
intellectual circumstances al-Ma'arri lived in and he intentionally
left it unsolved and intense as a robust stance against claims of
certainty. Going beyond reductive interpretations, the notion of
ambivalence allows for an integrative paradigm in dealing with
contradictions and dissonance.
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Peter Chaadaev
(Hardcover)
Artur Mrowczynski-Van Allen, Teresa Obolevitch, Pawel Rojek
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R1,238
R1,032
Discovery Miles 10 320
Save R206 (17%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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The Oxford Handbook of Natural Theology is the first collection to
consider the full breadth of natural theology from both historical
and contemporary perspectives and to bring together leading
scholars to offer accessible high-level accounts of the major
themes. The volume embodies and develops the recent revival of
interest in natural theology as a topic of serious critical
engagement. Frequently misunderstood or polemicized, natural
theology is an under-studied yet persistent and pervasive presence
throughout the history of thought about ultimate reality - from the
classical Greek theology of the philosophers to twenty-first
century debates in science and religion. Of interest to students
and scholars from a wide range of disciplines, this authoritative
handbook draws on the very best of contemporary scholarship to
present a critical overview of the subject area. Thirty eight new
essays trace the transformations of natural theology in different
historical and religious contexts, the place of natural theology in
different philosophical traditions and diverse scientific
disciplines, and the various cultural and aesthetic approaches to
natural theology to reveal a rich seam of multi-faceted theological
reflection rooted in human nature and the environments within which
we find ourselves.
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