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Books > Religion & Spirituality > General > Philosophy of religion
During the lowest point of his life, a man begins writing letters
to God to vent his frustrations - and unexpectedly receives answers
to his questions, written by his own hand. The bestselling
spiritual classic that has now sold millions of copies world-wide.
Neale Donald Walsch was experiencing the lowest point of his life -
from a devastating fire to the collapse of his marriage - when he
decided to write a letter to God to vent his frustrations. What he
did not expect was a response: as he finished his letter, he was
moved to continue writing, and out came extraordinary answers to
his questions. These answers - covering all aspects of human
existence, from happiness to money, to faith - helped Walsch to
change himself and his life for better, and the way he viewed other
beings. Walsch compiled all of these answers into a book,
Conversations with God, which was an instant bestseller on
publication in 1995, going straight into the New York Times
bestseller list and remaining there for more than 130 weeks. Over
twenty years later, it has sold millions of copies world-wide and
has changed the lives of countless people all around the world with
its profound answers about life, happiness, money, love and faith.
Conversations with God is a modern spiritual classic that remains
fresh and relevant in a world that needs its powerful messages
about who we are and our place in it more than ever.
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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The Prophet
(Hardcover)
Kahlil Gibran; Contributions by John Baldock; Introduction by John Baldock
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R285
R260
Discovery Miles 2 600
Save R25 (9%)
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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Philosophical Exigencies of Christian Religion is a translation of
two of Maurice Blondel’s essays. Blondel’s thinking played a
significant role in the deliberations and arguments of the Second
Vatican Council. Although a towering figure in the history of
twentieth-century Catholic thought, the later systematic works of
Maurice Blondel have been largely inaccessible in the
English-speaking world. Oliva Blanchette, who previously translated
Blondel’s early groundbreaking work Action (1893), now offers the
first English translation of Blondel’s final work to be
published, Philosophical Exigencies of Christian Religion. This
work of transition from mere philosophy to a consideration of
Christian religion consists of two main essays, The Christian Sense
and the shorter On Assimilation, followed by a Reconsideration and
Global View and an Appendix: Clarifications and Admonitions written
in answer to an inquiry by a young scholar about method. The first
essay explores the Christian sense of the spiritual life and how
Christian religion, even as supernatural, can come under the
purview of critical philosophy. The second essay examines the move
from analogy to assimilation in speaking of the Christian life.
Blondel tackles the question: How does the human spirit combine
with the divine spirit in such a way that neither is lost in the
process? Philosophical Exigencies of Christian Religion is critical
for understanding Blondel’s thought. This high-quality
translation and Blanchette’s concise preface will appeal not only
to philosophers and theologians but also to spiritual writers and
directors of spiritual retreats in the Ignatian and Jesuit
traditions.
In his latest book, Horizons of Difference: Engaging with Others,
Fred Dallmayr argues that the dialogue between religious and
secular commitments, between faith and reason, is particularly
important in our time because both faith and reason can give rise
to dangerous and destructive types of extremism, fanaticism, or
idolatry. In this interdisciplinary and cross-cultural synthesis of
philosophy, religious thought, and political theory, Dallmayr
neither accepts the "clash of cultures" dichotomy nor denies the
reality of cultural tensions. Instead, operating from the
standpoint of philosophical hermeneutics, he embraces cultural
difference as a necessary condition and opportunity for mutual
cross-cultural dialogue and learning. In part 1, "Relationality and
Difference," Dallmayr explores the emergence of diverse loyalties
and attachments in different social and cultural contexts. The
assumption is not that different commitments are necessarily
synchronized or "naturally" compatible but rather that they are
held together precisely by their difference and potential
antagonism. Part 2, "Engagement through Dialogue and Interaction,"
dwells on the major means of mediating between the alternatives of
radical separation and radical sameness: dialogue and hermeneutical
interpretation of understanding. In this respect, the emphasis
shifts to leading philosophers of dialogue such as Hans-Georg
Gadamer, Bernhard Waldenfels, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. In a world
where the absolutizing of the ego encourages selfish egotism that
can lead to aggressive warmongering, Horizons of Difference shows
how the categories of "difference" and "relationality" can be used
to build a genuine and peaceful democracy based on dialogue and
interaction instead of radical autonomy and elitism.
The subject of Christology has been a struggle for the church
from the very beginning. It has resulted in divisions, crusades,
inquisitions, persecutions, and a wide range of creeds. Each group
claims it possesses the truth-a truth revealed to them, a
particular turn on belief they alone rightly proclaim. In "And
Jacob Digged a Well," author Pastor Theodore M. Snider provides a
commentary on religion-where it's been, where it's headed, and how
it fits in the modern world. He seeks to answer this question: why
do we believe what we believe?
Snider discusses how scientific and technological discoveries
have changed not only our worldviews but also our Godviews and how
consciousness and brain research are altering the way we understand
each other and how beliefs are formed. He compiles a diverse amount
of information on topics relevant to both secular and religious
audiences, including creationism, evolution, intelligent design,
and artificial intelligence through historical, scientific,
cognitive, and psychological avenues.
And Jacob Digged a Well reminds us that "natural" may not be as
clear as we once thought. Faith in the twenty-first century needs
to look quite different from the past century.
This title presents an analysis of 'messianism' in Continental
philosophy, using a case study of Levinas to uncover its underlying
philosophical intelligibility. There is no greater testament to
Emmanuel Levinas' reputation as an enigmatic thinker than in his
mediations on eschatology and its relevance for contemporary
thought. Levinas has come to be seen as a principle representative
in Continental philosophy - alongside the likes of Heidegger,
Benjamin, Adorno and Zizek - of a certain philosophical messianism,
differing from its religious counterpart in being formulated
apparently without appeal to any dogmatic content. To date,
however, Levinas' messianism has not received the same detailed
attention as other aspects of his wide ranging ethical vision.
Terence Holden attempts to redress this imbalance, tracing the
evolution of the messianic idea across Levinas' career, emphasising
the transformations or indeed displacements which this idea
undergoes in taking on philosophical intelligibility. He suggests
that, in order to crack the enigma which this idea represents, we
must consider not only the Jewish tradition from which Levinas
draws inspiration, but also Nietzsche, who ostensibly would
represent the greatest rival to the messianic idea in the history
of philosophy, with his notion of the 'parody' of messianism. This
groundbreaking series offers original reflections on theory and
method in the study of religions, and demonstrates new approaches
to the way religious traditions are studied and presented. Studies
published under its auspices look to clarify the role and place of
Religious Studies in the academy, but not in a purely theoretical
manner. Each study will demonstrate its theoretical aspects by
applying them to the actual study of religions, often in the form
of frontier research.
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.
The question of God and cosmology is far from abstract. In fact,
the subject raises the deepest questions of human existence: "Why
is there something rather than nothing?" Or, to put it more
personally, "Why am I here?", Structured as a debate, the 2014
Greer-Heard Forum focused on the issue of God and cosmology and its
impact on life and self-understanding. Christian philosopher
William Lane Craig and atheist cosmologist Sean Carroll presented
their views before a packed crowd of more than nine hundred people.
Spirited, civil, and often humorous, the debate highlighted not
only their positions, but the full range of possibilities. In this
volume, the content of that debate is reprinted and supplemented by
a range of reflections by other conference presenters. The purpose
of the Greer-Heard Point-Counterpoint Forum is to provide a venue
for fair-minded dialogue on subjects of importance in religion and
culture. The goal is a respectful exchange of ideas, without
compromise.
What can we know about ourselves and the world through the sense of
touch and what are the epistemic limits of touch? Scepticism claims
that there is always something that slips through the
epistemologist's grasp. A Touch of Doubt explores the significance
of touch for the history of philosophical scepticism as well as for
scepticism as an embodied form of subversive political, religious,
and artistic practice. Drawing on the tradition of scepticism
within nineteenth- and twentieth-century continental philosophy and
psychoanalysis, this volume discusses how the sense of touch
uncovers contradictions within our knowledge of ourselves and the
world. It questions 1) what we can know through touch, 2) what we
can know about touch itself, and 3) how our experience of touching
the other and ourselves throws us into a state of doubt. This
volume is intended for students and scholars who wish to reconsider
the experience of touching in intersections of philosophy,
religion, art, and social and political practice.
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.
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