Research is directed by normative standards which need to be transparent in order to secure the quality of the scholarly discussion. The aim of this book is to contribute to such transparency in relation to research on religion and theology representing a combination of empirical and normative claims themselves. What does this combination of empirical and normative claims imply for the normative standards of research? The contributions in this volume discuss different normative dimensions in contemporary research on religion and theology. Presenting articles from systematic theology, practical theology, sociology of religion, ethics, religious studies and missiology it covers a wide range of issues that are relevant for PhD students of theology and religious studies as well as for others who are involved in research on these topics.

Thomas Aquinas devoted a substantial proportion of his greatest works to the virtues and associated matters, yet despite the availability of these vast texts and centuries of commentary, Aquinas's virtue ethics remains mysterious, raising questions to which satisfactory answers have not yet been given. In this book, Pinsent argues that the key to understanding Aquinas's work is to be found in an association between attributes he appends to the virtues and certain interpersonal capacities revealed recently by the scientific study of social cognition. This book shows that Aquinas's approach to the virtues is radically non-Aristotelian and founded on the concept of second person relatedness. To highlight the explanatory power of this principle, Pinsent demonstrates how the second person perspective provides a coherent interpretation of Aquinas's descriptions of the virtues in general and offers a key to long-standing problems, such as the reconciliation of magnanimity and humility. The principle of second person relatedness also provides a way to interpret those actus or operationes that Aquinas describes as the fruition or realization of the virtues.Pinsent concludes by considering how this approach may help to shape future developments in virtue ethics.

In this book, Daniel K. Miller articulates a new vision of human and animal relationships based on the foundational love ethic within Christianity. Framed around Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan, Animal Ethics and Theology thoughtfully examines the shortcomings of utilitarian and rights-based approaches to animal ethics. By considering the question of animals within the Christian concept of neighbourly love, Miller provides an alternative narrative for understanding the complex relationships that humans have with other animals. This book addresses significant theological questions such as: Does being created in the image of God present a meaningful distinction between humans and other animals? What does it mean for humans to have dominion (Gen. 1:28) over animals? Is meat eating a moral problem for Christians? In addition to drawing out the significance of Christian theology for field of animal ethics this book also engages environmental and feminist ethics. Miller brings a theological perspective to such questions as: Should care for animals be distinguished from care for the environment, and what role should human emotions play in our ethical dealings with other animals? As the title suggests, this book provides fresh insight into the theological significance of human relationships with other animals.

The natural world has been "humanized": even areas thought to be wilderness bear the marks of human impact. But this human impact is not simply physical. At the emergence of the environmental movement, the focus was on human effects on "nature." More recently, however, the complexity of the term "nature" has led to fruitful debates and the recognition of how human individuals and cultures interpret their environments. This book furthers the dialogue on religion, ethics, and the environment by exploring three interrelated concepts: to recreate, to replace, and to restore. Through interdisciplinary dialogue the authors illuminate certain unique dimensions at the crossroads between finding value, creating value, and reflecting on one's place in the world. Each of these terms has diverse religious, ethical, and scientific connotations. Each converges on the ways in which humans both think about and act upon their surroundings. And each radically questions the damaging conceptual divisions between nature and culture, human and environment, and scientific explanation and religious/ethical understanding. This book self-consciously reflects on the intersections of environmental philosophy, environmental theology, and religion and ecology, stressing the importance of how place interprets us and how we interpret place. In addition to its contribution to environmental philosophy, this work is a unique volume in its serious engagement with theology and religious studies on the issues of ecological restoration and the meaning of place.

New Calvinism and the Victim endeavors into the overlapping areas of psychological trauma and systematic theology by investigating the dynamic interplay between the psychology of holding maximalist theological beliefs and recovery from abuse trauma. Maxwell examines the effect that the Calvinist belief can have upon the traumatized Christian who negatively internalizes its superlative doctrines of divine control and human moral corruption. The project seeks to understand these intersecting realities by investigating a triptych of inquiries: From a theological perspective, can a Christian lose his faith because of a traumatic experience? Moreover, what are the consequences of such a loss? And, how could Reformed theology exacerbate this religious detachment? Ultimately, the research suggests that there are experiential harmonies between the belief in Reformed theology and the experience of trauma, which are neither existentially necessary nor therapeutically negligible-rather, they are conceptually likely based on both philosophical analysis and psychological research.

Life Histories of Baha'i Women in Canada: Constructing Religious Identity in the Twentieth Century is an unprecedented study of the essential features of living a Baha'i life, examining contributions and experiences of a diverse group of Canadian women and men in a new religion through a sociological framework and a women-centred perspective. The key figures in the Baha'i Faith, early female heroes, major teachings of the religion, and Canadian Baha'i history are detailed. A background on social history and the feminization of religion also provides a context for twentieth century Canadian life. Drawing upon Western religious and secular thought and practice, theories and social attitudes about the nature of woman and the Baha'i perspective on these topics are explicated. These stirring narratives, historical and contemporary, provide a compelling perspective on social processes and interactional dimensions of Baha'i community life. The life histories also illustrate, in poignant, humorous, and inspiring ways, how these notable Baha'is "story" themselves along the way. The teachings of the Baha'i Faith are remarkably forward looking. One of the foundational principles is the oneness of humanity, and an integral part of this oneness is the equality of women with men. Lay readers and students of religion, sociology, and women's and gender studies, will be interested in how members make meaning of these teachings on equality and how women's participation in the Baha'i institutional system is promoted and maintained.

What is the nature of addiction? Neither of the two dominant models (disease or choice) adequately accounts for the experience of those who are addicted or of those who are seeking to help them. In this interdisciplinary work, Kent Dunnington brings the neglected resources of philosophical and theological analysis to bear on the problem of addiction. Drawing on the insights of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, he formulates an alternative to the usual reductionistic models. Going further, Dunnington maintains that addiction is not just a problem facing individuals. Its pervasiveness sheds prophetic light on our cultural moment. Moving beyond issues of individual treatment, this groundbreaking study also outlines significant implications for ministry within the local church context.

What is the most important lesson in the word of God? In Matt. 22:34-40, Jesus summarizes the whole Bible into two commandments, being 'love for God' and 'love for thy neighbor' (Lev. 19:18). Why did Jesus cite Lev. 19:18 (love) instead of 19:2 (holiness), which is the core of this chapter? This book analyzes how Lev. 19 is unfolded from OT times to the message of the NT. It attempts to prove the importance of Lev. 19 in the canonical tradition of Judaism and Christianity and to identify the clues which can help to explain the reason why Jesus chose Lev. 19:18. Further, the book shows that holiness, one of the main issues in Lev. 19, is replaced by perfection in Matt. 5:48. This connection is shown through examining the Community Rule (1QS) of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which joins the themes of holiness and perfection. This combination serves as the 'missing link' to bridge the gap between Lev. 19 and Matt. 5. The method used to explore these texts is called 'a canonical unfolding.' After a commentary on Lev. 19 the chapter is compared to other connected texts. Finally, the meaning of Lev. 19 is reinterpreted in the whole context of the Canon.

The challenge of methodic quality has haunted scholars in the human and social sciences since the end of the nineteenth century with the explosive and public success of the natural sciences and their precision and aim of controlling nature. The discussion has been dominated by the quest for proper scientific concepts and methods comparable to those employed in the natural sciences. This book discloses the limits of scientific concepts and methods, and the failure of approaches in the human sciences emulating the scientific procedures in the natural sciences, notably the cognitive science of religion, to articulate religious life in its actuality. The author demonstrates on the basis of his own field research conducted among Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka and Orthodox monks and pilgrims on the Holy Mountain of Athos in Greece how preconceptions and historical belongingness determine interpretation. He argues that in the human sciences words matter more than concepts and propositions, and elucidates how words are revelatory of the authenticity of being, when the attitude adopted is that the view of the encountered other might be right. In the conclusion the author identifies the methodic characteristics of hermeneutic reflection and proposes an analytic model for the human sciences that enables scholars to articulate the authenticity of actual life in words that reach the other.

Ethics after Auschwitz? Primo Levi's and Elie Wiesel's Response demonstrates how, after their horrific experiences in Auschwitz, both Primo Levi and Elie Wiesel could have deservedly expressed rage and bitterness for the rest of their lives. Housed in the same barracks in the depths of hell, a dark reality surpassing Dante's vivid images portrayed in The Inferno, they chose to speak, write, and work for a better world, never allowing the memory of those who did not survive to fade. Why and how did they make this choice? What influenced their values before Auschwitz and their moral decision making after it? What can others who have suffered less devastating traumas learn from them? "The quest is in the question", Wiesel often tells his students. This book is a quest for hope and goodness emerging from the Shoah's deepest "night".

Structured directly around the specification of the AQA, this is the definitive textbook for students of Advanced Subsidiary or Advanced Level courses. It covers all the necessary topics for Religious Ethics in an enjoyable student-friendly fashion. Each chapter includes:

• a list of key issues
• AQA specification checklist
• explanations of key terminology
• helpful summaries
• self-test review questions
• exam practice questions.

To maximise students' chances of exam success, the book contains a section dedicated to answering examination questions. It comes complete with lively illustrations, a comprehensive glossary, full bibliography and a companion website.

The victims of environmental destruction are often sidelined in eco-theology and environmental discourse. Movements for ecological justice fail to take into account the voice of those at the grassroots. 'Alternatives Unincorporated' presents an environmental ethics that begins with those on the margins. Using the key example of the Narmada Dam in India and the popular resistance movement which built up against the project, the book examines the collective action of subaltern communities in caring for their local environment. The book frames these movements as theological texts that inform a life-affirming earth ethics. The aim of the book is to challenge prevailing social and ecological dynamics and to affirm the interconnectedness of social justice and environmental action.

The Nasirean Ethics is the best known ethical digest to be composed in medieval Persia, if not in all mediaeval Islam. It appeared initially in 633/1235 when T s was already a celebrated scholar, scientist, politico-religious propagandist. The work has a special significance as being composed by an outstanding figure at a crucial time in the history he was himself helping to shape: some twenty years later T s was to cross the greatest psychological watershed in Islamic civilization, playing a leading part in the capture of Baghdad and the extinction of the generally acknowledged Caliphate there. In this work the author is primarily concerned with the criteria of human behaviour: first in terms of space and priority allotted, at the individual level, secondly, at the economic level and thirdly at the political level.

The Principle of Subsidiarity in Catholic Social Thought: Implications for Social Justice and Civil Society in Nigeria provides a theoretical and practical framework for a just vision of society. It focuses on how support for individuals and social groups in Nigeria can foster the building of their communities through the practice of social justice. Social justice will ensure the building of trust across ethnic lines, challenge corruption, encourage accountability and servant leadership, protect minority tribes from larger ones, and promote grassroots self-help tribal, communal, religious, and non-governmental associations as agents of positive social change and development. These dynamics interact within a healthy federal structure that respects its constituent parts for the common good. This volume is recommended as a graduate text for courses in theology, religious education, and social philosophy, and for all interested in promoting the common good.

Conjugal Chastity in Pope Wojtyla explains how Karol Wojtyla, philosopher, theologian, and Pope, tried to show how the sexual act, within the context of marriage, is an expression of love. After explaining how love as goodwill is the foundation of conjugal love, the correct relationship between love and justice is clarified. The negative dimension of the personalistic norm of Wojtyla is then critically examined. Conjugal love is explained in terms of conjugal beneficience based on conjugal benevolence. This love leads to total self-giving in each conjugal act. The procreative meaning of the conjugal act seems to be its most formal element (the soul of the act, so to speak); the unitive element is described as an essential property of this act, something which necessarily flows from the conjugal act which is open to life. Chastity is the virtue that allows sexuality to be integrated into a love which is truly personal and reflects Trinitarian Love.

Ethics, Literature, and Theory: An Introductory Reader brings together the work of contemporary scholars, teachers, and writers into lively discussion on the moral role of literature and the relationship between aesthetics, art, and ethics. Do the rich descriptions and narrative shapings of literature provide a valuable resource for readers, writers, philosophers, and everyday people to imagine and confront the ultimate questions of life? Do the human activities of storytelling and complex moral decision-making have a deep connection? What are the moral responsibilities of the artist, critic, and reader? What can religious perspectives_from Catholic to Protestant to Mormon_contribute to literary criticism? What do we mean when we talk about ethical criticism and how does this differ from the common notion of censorship? Thirty well known contributors reflect on these questions including: literary theorists Marshall Gregory, James Phelan, and Wayne Booth; philosophers Martha Nussbaum, Richard Hart, and Nina Rosenstand; and authors John Updike, Charles Johnson, Flannery O'Connor, and Bernard Malamud. Divided into four sections, with introductory matter and questions for discussion, this accessible anthology represents the most crucial work today exploring the interdisciplinary connections among literature, religion and philosophy.

Linking the decline in Church authority in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries with the increasing respectability of fiction, Carol Stewart provides a new perspective on the rise of the novel. The resulting readings of novels by authors such as Samuel Richardson, Sarah Fielding, Frances Sheridan, Charlotte Lennox, Tobias Smollett, Laurence Sterne, William Godwin, and Jane Austen trace the translation of ethical debate into secular and gendered terms. Stewart argues that the seventeenth-century debate about ethics that divided Latitudinarians and Calvinists found its way into novels of the eighteenth century. Her book explores the growing belief that novels could do the work of moral reform more effectively than the Anglican Church, with attention to related developments, including the promulgation of Anglican ethics in novels as a response to challenges to Anglican practice and authority. An increasingly legitimate genre, she argues, offered a forum both for investigating the situation of women and challenging patriarchal authority, and for challenging the dominant political ideology.

Religion, Politics and Cults in East Africa is the first major, original, and extensive research-based study of the apocalyptic and doomsday Catholic Marian Movement and its Benedictine monastic moral and religious practices, including vows of poverty, celibacy, obedience, daily contemplation in silence, and hard work. The Marian Movement is presented within the cultural, historical, political, and religious context of the East African Revival Movement, the Anglican Balokole Movement, Alice Lakwena's Holy Spirit Movement, Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), and other religio-political liberation movements, including the Maji Maji, the Mau Mau, and Nyabingi Liberation Movement. The Marian Movement was locally known as "Abanyabugoto" and "The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God". It began in 1989 as a Catholic women's Marian devotional and moral reformation movement, founded and headed by Keledonia Mwerinde. Faced with African cultural patriarchy and male-dominated Catholic Church hierarchy, Mwerinde recruited Joseph Kibwetere and the Rev. Fr. Dominic Kataribabo to serve as the public face of the Marian Movement. In response to Catholic hierarchy's opposition and persecution, Fr. Kataribabo designed a theology of ritual sacrifice, atonement, and martyrdoms for the devout Marian Catholics, who were devotees of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He martyred the Marian devotees in March 2000, in order to transform them into Mary's saints, and to liberate their souls and send them to heaven, where they would instantly attain eternal life, lasting peace, and happiness.

Religion, Politics and Cults in East Africa is the first major, original, and extensive research-based study of the apocalyptic and doomsday Catholic Marian Movement and its Benedictine monastic moral and religious practices, including vows of poverty, celibacy, obedience, daily contemplation in silence, and hard work. The Marian Movement is presented within the cultural, historical, political, and religious context of the East African Revival Movement, the Anglican Balokole Movement, Alice Lakwena's Holy Spirit Movement, Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), and other religio-political liberation movements, including the Maji Maji, the Mau Mau, and Nyabingi Liberation Movement. The Marian Movement was locally known as "Abanyabugoto" and "The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God". It began in 1989 as a Catholic women's Marian devotional and moral reformation movement, founded and headed by Keledonia Mwerinde. Faced with African cultural patriarchy and male-dominated Catholic Church hierarchy, Mwerinde recruited Joseph Kibwetere and the Rev. Fr. Dominic Kataribabo to serve as the public face of the Marian Movement. In response to Catholic hierarchy's opposition and persecution, Fr. Kataribabo designed a theology of ritual sacrifice, atonement, and martyrdoms for the devout Marian Catholics, who were devotees of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He martyred the Marian devotees in March 2000, in order to transform them into Mary's saints, and to liberate their souls and send them to heaven, where they would instantly attain eternal life, lasting peace, and happiness.

Drawing on work from inside some of America's largest and toughest prisons, this book documents an alternative model of "restorative corrections" utilizing the lived experience of successful inmates, fast disrupting traditional models of correctional programming. While research documents a strong desire among those serving time in prison to redeem themselves, inmates often confront a profound lack of opportunity for achieving redemption. In a system that has become obsessively and dysfunctionally punitive, often fewer than 10% of prisoners receive any programming. Incarcerated citizens emerge from prisons in the United States to reoffend at profoundly high rates, with the majority of released prisoners ending up back in prison within five years. In this book, the authors describe a transformative agenda for incentivizing and rewarding good behavior inside prisons, rapidly proving to be a disruptive alternative to mainstream corrections and offering hope for a positive future. The authors' expertise on the impact of faith-based programs on recidivism reduction and prisoner reentry allows them to delve into the principles behind inmate-led religious services and other prosocial programs-to show how those incarcerated may come to consider their existence as meaningful despite their criminal past and current incarceration. Religious practice is shown to facilitate the kind of transformational "identity work" that leads to desistance that involves a change in worldview and self-concept, and which may lead a prisoner to see and interpret reality in a fundamentally different way. With participation in religion protected by the U.S. Constitution, these model programs are helping prison administrators weather financial challenges while also helping make prisons less punitive, more transparent, and emotionally restorative. This book is essential reading for scholars of corrections, offender reentry, community corrections, and religion and crime, as well as professionals and volunteers involved in correctional counseling and prison ministry.

The first basic thesis of Anti-Roman Cryptograms in the New Testament: Hidden Transcripts of Hope and Liberation is that the Jesus of history and his earliest and closest followers during his lifetime and during the decades after he had been crucified by the Romans had not only a deep longing for eternal life with God beyond the limits of this world, but also a strong desire for liberation from Roman political, economic, and social oppression. The second basic thesis of Anti-Roman Cryptograms in the New Testament is that within the Christian Scriptures there are more hidden transcripts, coded messages (anti-Roman cryptograms) of hope and liberation, for « freedom now within this life, than we have realized throughout most of the history of interpretation. Hidden transcripts of hope and liberation are coded so that oppressed people are able to communicate to their fellow oppressed people in ways in which their message and their intent are shielded from the perceptions of their oppressors. These messages by the Jesus of history and by the writers of New Testament and related literature use the language of faith, of salvation, of Deity, and of adversaries of Deity, giving words that are commonly used by the oppressed people new and double meanings. Within interaction with other scholars who are publishing studies of hidden transcripts, this book is an analysis of hidden transcripts within each of the New Testament documents. The book is designed to be used in New Testament Studies courses at undergraduate and/or graduate levels, by study groups, and by all persons who desire a more adequate understanding of the Jesus of history, his closest followers, and their oral and written communications during the first three centuries C.E.

This volume engages with issues of moral responsibility and multiethnic co-existence in the context of contemporary Africa. Post-colonial African states are by and large ethnically diverse. Constructively managing ethnic diversity, however, has always been a challenge to these states, which often fail to be democratic and all-inclusive. As a result, ethnic enmity and conflicts that obliterate bonds of togetherness between ethnic communities have been rampant throughout the continent. In dialogue with Africa's cultural and religious assets, this interdisciplinary multi-authored book aims at articulating the need to interpret past and present ethnic hostilities in Africa, and generating moral resources of togetherness to foster a social pedagogy of responsible cohabitation for Africans. The chapters of this volume, categorized into two parts, are framed according to these two niches.

Provides an accessible introduction to the Environmental Humanities, a complex and interdisciplinary area, and designed to provide a foundation for future study, projects and pursuits. Written by academics with experience of teaching and writing in the field. Content is engaging and includes case studies, discussion questions, annotated bibliographies, and links to online resources. Organised by subject, this book could be used on general environmental humanities courses, or individual chapters could be used on subject specific courses i.e. Environmental History, environmental film etc.

Grace Jantzen was an internationally-renowned feminist philosopher of religion whose work has transformed the way we think about the interactions between religion, culture and gender in Western culture. Jantzen's aim was to 'redeem the present' via a critique and reconstruction of staple concepts of the Western imaginary. This unique book brings together many of Grace Jantzen's colleagues and former students in a wide-ranging exploration of her enduring influence, ranging across philosophy of religion, to literature, psychoanalysis, theology, ethics and politics. Part I assesses the ramifications of Jantzen's affirmation that Western culture must 'choose life' in preference to a prevailing symbolic of violence and death. Part II explores some of the key voices which contributed to Jantzen's understanding of a culture of flourishing and natality: Quaker thought and practice, medieval mysticism and feminist spirituality. Further essays apply elements of Jantzen's work to the politics of disability, development and environmentalism, extending her range of influence into new and innovative areas.

Grace Jantzen was an internationally-renowned feminist philosopher of religion whose work has transformed the way we think about the interactions between religion, culture and gender in Western culture. Jantzen's aim was to 'redeem the present' via a critique and reconstruction of staple concepts of the Western imaginary. This unique book brings together many of Grace Jantzen's colleagues and former students in a wide-ranging exploration of her enduring influence, ranging across philosophy of religion, to literature, psychoanalysis, theology, ethics and politics. Part I assesses the ramifications of Jantzen's affirmation that Western culture must 'choose life' in preference to a prevailing symbolic of violence and death. Part II explores some of the key voices which contributed to Jantzen's understanding of a culture of flourishing and natality: Quaker thought and practice, medieval mysticism and feminist spirituality. Further essays apply elements of Jantzen's work to the politics of disability, development and environmentalism, extending her range of influence into new and innovative areas.