Light from the East collates letters between Hon. P. Arunachalam of the legislative council of Ceylon and Edward Carpenter, which expand on issues of the Gnanam or divine knowledge. Carpenter edited these letters for publication in 1927 as well as writing additional articles on issues such as desire, birth control and bisexuality in relation to the customs of Ceylon and religious laws of Hinduism to give the reader a broad insight into the religion. This title will be of interest to students of sociology, anthropology and religious studies.

In this magisterial volume Charles E. Curran surveys the historical development of Catholic moral theology in the United States from its 19th century roots to the present day. He begins by tracing the development of pre-Vatican II moral theology that, with the exception of social ethics, had the limited purpose of training future confessors to know what actions are sinful and the degree of sinfulness. Curran then explores and illuminates the post-Vatican II era with chapters on the effect of the Council on the scope and substance of moral theology, the impact of Humanae vitae, Pope Paul VI's encyclical condemning artificial contraception, fundamental moral theology, sexuality and marriage, bioethics, and social ethices. Curran's perspective is unique: For nearly 50 years he has been a major influence on the development of the field and has witnessed first-hand the dramatic increase in the number and diversity of moral theologians in the academy and the Church. No one is more qualified to write this first and only comprehensive history of Catholic moral theology in the United States.

Contending that the rejection of God and spirituality is the root cause of our deepest social ills, White offers a personal vision for the future from the perspective of one who has tasted both the pleasures and perils of superstar celebrity status. 8-page photo insert.

Around the globe, people who work in the helping professions are often heroic bridge-builders and creators of peaceful societies. They have in common, Marc Gopin argues, a set of cultivated moral character traits and psychosocial skills. They tend to be kinder, more reasonable, more self-controlled, and more goal-oriented towards peace. They are united by a particular set of moral values and the emotional skills to put those values into practice, allowing them to excel in what he calls "Compassionate Reasoning." In this book, Gopin draws upon the history of ethics along with his own thirty-year career in the field of peacebuilding to develop an understanding of this type of reasoning. The very multiplicity of approaches to ethics, says Gopin, invites us to look for higher principles and intuitions. In discovering the worlds of others, we also clarify our own deepest moral principles and commitments. By utilizing Compassionate Reasoning, individuals with divergent moral principles and intuitions can find a way to talk to each other and to meet in a common universe of ethical concern. Gopin explores this as a way to build peace, especially across divides of politics, race, religion, and culture.

Informal customs are the casual norms for most young adults in matters of sexual intimacy. Unfortunately, the sexual revolution has not proven to be as beneficial to women as was once thought and young men enjoy themselves without preparing themselves to be husbands and fathers. In this book, Piderit argues that a natural law approach to morality provides a grounded pathway toward marriage, and shows why these fairly traditional practices help young people find a partner to whom he or she can realistically promise love "until death do us part." Any effective culture consists of practices, which are accompanied by narratives, norms, and benefits. By offering theory but focusing on practices, this book helps young adults understand why sexual intimacy should be reserved to marriage. The first two thirds of the book develop the natural law approach; seeking common ground early in the volume makes it possible to understand a Christian approach to morality as grounded in nature, not primarily in religion. The goal is to highlight the reasonableness of this approach. The final third (Part III) of the book explores what religious practice and membership in a Christian denomination adds to the natural law approach. In addition to a morality based on natural law, Piderit also proposes a morality based on virtue ethics, which give precedence to positive goals over forbidden actions. The focus is on individual actions, explaining why any individual action falls into the category of exemplary, acceptable, or corrosive; these are terms developed, explained, and used in the book. Individual actions, of course, get repeated over time, and this leads to the formation of habits. And the reason for bracketing the formation of habits is to focus on individual actions and in this way make clear to young readers why certain actions lead to human fulfillment and why others actions undermine that fulfillment.

A thorough examination of many aspects of morality through the lens of Christianity, this book, originally published in 1939, is philosophical in its approach to assessing religion. It compares moral traditions of many world religions and describes their changes over time as well. Written accessibly, this is a fascinating outlay of moral theology.

Hermeneutics continues to be an area of interest to many, yet recent discussions in hermeneutic theory have turned toward fringe areas - whether found in realms of post-structuralism or radical orthodoxy - that have resulted in a 'forgetfulness' of one of hermeneutics' key thinkers, Immanuel Kant. This book seeks to reaffirm Kant's place as a central thinker for hermeneutics and to challenge and support prevailing criticisms. It has been argued that Kant merely offers a theory of the subjective universality of a rational aesthetic judgement where only reason connects us to the transcendent and sensation is only a subjective and confusing factor that distracts and distorts reason. This position is challenged as well as supported by the contributors to this book, scholars who bring key issues in hermeneutics to light from American, British, and continental perspectives, grounded in questions and concerns germane to today's culture. The discussion of hermeneutics is framed as being deliberately an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural affair. The Sacred and the Profane provides a welcome addition to contemporary discussions on hermeneutic theory through its assertion that there is still a need to support a critical approach to hermeneutics after Kant.

Iris Murdoch's moral philosophy, although highly influential in 20th century moral theory, is somewhat unsystematic and inaccessible. In this work Widdows outlines the moral vision of Iris Murdoch in its entirety and draws out the implications of her thought for the contemporary ethical debate, discussing such aspects of Murdoch's work as the influence of Plato on her conception of The Good, the reality of the human moral experience, the attainment of knowledge of moral values and how art and religion inform the living of the moral life. Examining all of Murdoch's contributions to moral philosophy from her short papers to Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals, Heather Widdows provides an accessible and systematised account of Murdoch's moral concepts and offers a clear and critical exposition of her thought. By clarifying Murdoch's central themes, core ideas and her picture of the moral life, this book enables her work to be more easily understood and so utilised in current debates.

In 1967, Lynn White, Jr.'s seminal article The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis was published, essentially establishing the academic study of religion and nature. White argues that religions-particularly Western Christianity-are a major cause of worldwide ecological crises. He then asserts that if we are to halt, let alone revert, anthropogenic damages to the environment, we need to radically transform religious cosmologies. White's hugely influential thesis has been cited thousands of times in a variety of disciplines, including but not limited to religious studies, environmental ethics, history, ecological science, philosophy, psychology, and anthropology. In practical terms, the ecological crisis to which White was responding has only worsened in the decades since the article was published. This collection of original essays by leading scholars in a variety of interdisciplinary settings, including religion and nature, environmental ethics, animal studies, ecofeminism, restoration ecology, and ecotheology, considers the impact of White's arguments, offering constructive criticism as well as reflections on the ongoing, ever-changing scholarly debate about the way religion and culture contribute to both environmental crises and to their possible solutions. Religion and Ecological Crisis addresses a wide range of topics related to White's thesis, including its significance for environmental ethics and philosophy, the response from conservative Christians and evangelicals, its importance for Asian religious traditions, ecofeminist interpretations of the article, and which perspectives might have, ultimately, been left out of his analysis. This book is a timely reflection on the legacy and continuing challenge of White's influential article.

This book explores the diversity and dynamism of Islam in Southeast Asia through the concept of adab, or beautiful behavior. Amid the complexity of Islamic civilization, adab provides Muslims with a shared sense of sacred history, identity, and morality. In the context of Islamic ethics, adab defines the rules of personal and public etiquette: good manners, proper conduct, civility and humaneness. Featuring the interdisciplinary research of nine prominent scholars of Islam, the book offers new perspectives on adab's multiple meanings and myriad applications for Muslim communities in Malaysia and Indonesia. The chapters examine a wide range of texts, spotlighting the writings of prominent Muslim thinkers, and contexts, focusing on the everyday experiences of lay Muslims. Drawing on a variety of theoretical and methodological lenses, the essays reveal how beautiful behavior impacts local institutions, cultural practices, and religious imaginations via politics and law, spirituality and piety, ethics and experience. With its careful textual analysis, detailed case studies, and attention to historical continuities and disjunctures, Piety, Politics and Everyday Ethics in Southeast Asian Islam is essential reading for students and scholars interested in global Islam and the lived, local dynamics of Muslim Southeast Asia.

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In the first two seasons of the HBO series Westworld, human guests pay exorbitant fees to spend time among cybernetic Hosts-partially sentient AI robots-and live out often violent fantasies. In Theology and Westworld, scholars from a range of disciplines within religious studies examine the profound questions that arise when the narrative of Westworld interacts with the study of religion. From transhumanism and personhood to morality and divinity, this book contributes to, confounds, and challenges ideas that are found in the study of religion and philosophy. Taken together, the chapters further our understanding of what it means to live in a world where the hard questions of human existence are explored through the medium of popular culture.

SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY PRICE! (Valid until 3 months after publication) No collection of this sort has yet been conceived of, let alone accomplished, in this field. In part that may well be due to the extraordinarily nascent character of the field of comparative religious ethics, described as that (as opposed to Christian ethics, for example). Yet the aim is not simply to gather together a number of pieces, but -- with the appropriate modesty and tentativeness -- to offer one picture of how the field ought to understand itself: its past, present, and perhaps its future. A critical mass of scholars has now emerged in this area, and the institutional dynamics of religious studies departments, which are increasingly seeing the attractions of classes in "comparative ethics," are favorable as well. By gathering together both "classic" statements, exemplifying paradigmatic approaches in the field, and recent, ground-breaking and innovative works, the ambition is to make this collection the gold standard for anyone working on the field of comparative religious ethics in coming decades.

With the ending of the strategic certainties of the Cold War, the need for moral clarity over when, where and how to start, conduct and conclude war has never been greater. There has been a recent revival of interest in the just war tradition. But can a medieval theory help us answer twenty-first century security concerns?
David Fisher explores how just war thinking can and should be developed to provide such guidance. His in-depth study examines philosophical challenges to just war thinking, including those posed by moral scepticism and relativism. It explores the nature and grounds of moral reasoning; the relation between public and private morality; and how just war teaching needs to be refashioned to provide practical guidance not just to politicians and generals but to ordinary service people.
The complexity and difficulty of moral decision-making requires a new ethical approach - here characterised as virtuous consequentialism - that recognises the importance of both the internal quality and external effects of agency; and of the moral principles and virtues needed to enact them. Having reinforced the key tenets of just war thinking, Fisher uses these to address contemporary security issues, including the changing nature of war, military pre-emption and torture, the morality of the Iraq war, and humanitarian intervention. He concludes that the just war tradition provides not only a robust but an indispensable guide to resolve the security challenges of the twenty-first century.

The War on Terror has raised many new, thorny issues of how we can determine acceptable action in defense of our liberties. Western leaders have increasingly used spies to execute missions unsuitable to the military. These operations, which often result in the contravening of international law and previously held norms of acceptable moral behavior, raise critical ethical questions is spying limited by moral considerations? If so, what are they and how are they determined? Cole argues that spying is an act of force that may be a justifiable means to secure order and justice among political communities. He explores how the just war moral tradition, with its roots in Christian moral theology and Western moral philosophy, history, custom and law might help us come to grips with the moral problems of spying. This book will appeal to anyone interested in applied religious ethics, moral theology and philosophy, political philosophy, international law, international relations, military intellectual history, the War on Terror, and Christian theological politics."

Healthcare has an impact on everyone, and healthcare funding decisions shape how and what healthcare is provided. In this book, Stephen Duckett outlines a Christian, biblically grounded, ethical basis for how decisions about healthcare funding and priority-setting ought to be made. Taking a cue from the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), Duckett articulates three ethical principles drawn from the story: compassion as a motivator; inclusivity, or social justice as to benefits; and responsible stewardship of the resources required to achieve the goals of treatment and prevention. These are principles, he argues, that should underpin a Christian ethic of healthcare funding. Duckett's book is a must for healthcare professionals and theologians struggling with moral questions about rationing in healthcare. It is also relevant to economists interested in the strengths and weaknesses of the application of their discipline to health policy.

There is a growing crisis in scientific research characterized by failures to reproduce experimental results, fraud, lack of innovation, and burn-out. In Science and Christian Ethics, Paul Scherz traces these problems to the drive by governments and business to make scientists into competitive entrepreneurs who use their research results to stimulate economic growth. The result is a competitive environment aimed at commodifying the world. In order to confront this problem of character, Scherz examines the alternative Aristotelian and Stoic models of reforming character, found in the works of Alasdair MacIntyre and Michel Foucault. Against many prominent virtue ethicists, he argues that what individual scientists need is a regime of spiritual exercises, such as those found in Stoicism as it was adopted by Christianity, in order to refocus on the good of truth in the face of institutional pressure. His book illuminates pressing issues in research ethics, moral education, and anthropology.

This book positions the "prophetic" as an organizing concept that can bridge religious and secular criticism of popular media. Drawing from philosophical ethics and moral psychology, the book argues that prophetic critique engages a complex set of universal human capabilities. Whether religious or secular in origin, prophetic critique requires developmentally complex modes of critical reflection, imagination, empathy, and communication. Although this book is diverse in perspective, each author seeks to expose how the content, institutions, and technologies of popular media alternately support-or undermine-the basic values of equality, human dignity, and social justice. By foregrounding such universal principles, the authors distinguish their arguments from critical/cultural scholarship that fails to acknowledge its own normative foundations and implicit theology of culture. The authors demonstrate the efficacy of this framework by applying it to specific case studies in popular media including theater, film, music, journalism, and digital culture. The book argues that the prophetic critique of mass media is essential to maintaining a productive tension between religious communities and the institutions of secular democracy. More broadly, in outlining an inclusive understanding of prophetic critique, this book builds bridges between religious and secular scholarship and generates a unique vision for a revitalized, mass-mediated public sphere.

The Power of Reconciliation will come to be seen as Archbishop Welby's most important book to date. Welby writes about Reconciliation as seeking to disagree well. It relates to both religious and secular communities, from the household to the international. Conflict is widespread. With the after-effects of Covid, changes in science and technology, inequality, and increasingly polarized political and social strife, moves towards reconciliation are more necessary than ever. Both before ordination and since Welby has seen conflict first-hand. He has spent many years working on issues of conflict around the world. The book is full of practical advice for all those in authority on how to bring about reconciliation. There is even a step-by-step guide for this, drawn from the author's own experience. The book is thus down-to-earth, plugged into reality and devoid of pointless optimism or a Pollyannaish view of our contemporary problems. Furthermore, there is the dignity of difference. Today there is so much intolerance of views that are other than our own as we demonize those we do not agree with. This revolutionary book is published in the first place for the 2022 Lambeth Conference in July, when bishops from all around the world assemble in Canterbury. But its importance goes far beyond these confines, which will nonetheless be widely reported in the media and the press. The author deals with conflict and reconciliation within families, businesses, warfare between nations, races and all forms of political conflict. The book concerns the secular sphere every bit as much as the religious, though Welby's message is Christian inspired, and the influence of Desmond Tutu strongly felt.

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.

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.

Music does not make itself. It is made by people: professionals and amateurs, singers and instrumentalists, composers and publishers, performers and audiences, entrepreneurs and consumers. In turn, making music shapes those who make it-spiritually, emotionally, physically, mentally, socially, politically, economically-for good or ill, harming and healing. This volume considers the social practice of music from a Christian point of view. Using a variety of methodological perspectives, the essays explore the ethical and doctrinal implications of music-making. The reflections are grouped according to the traditional threefold ministry of Christ: prophet, priest, and shepherd: the prophetic role of music, as a means of articulating protest against injustice, offering consolation, and embodying a harmonious order; the pastoral role of music: creating and sustaining community, building peace, fostering harmony with the whole of creation; and the priestly role of music: in service of reconciliation and restoration, for individuals and communities, offering prayers of praise and intercession to God. Using music in priestly, prophetic, and pastoral ways, Christians pray for and rehearse the coming of God's kingdom-whether in formal worship, social protest, concert performance, interfaith sharing, or peacebuilding. Whereas temperance was of prime importance in relation to the ethics of music from antiquity to the early modern period, justice has become central to contemporary debates. This book seeks to contribute to those debates by means of Christian theological reflection on a wide range of musics: including monastic chant, death metal, protest songs, psalms and worship music, punk rock, musical drama, interfaith choral singing, Sting, and Daft Punk.

Inspired by the current political moment around the globe in which uprisings, protests, revolutions, and movements are on the rise, this book examines the intersections between the Bible and activism. It does this by showcasing intersectional readings of the Bible as an activist act and a tool for activism; historicizing the uses of the Bible within activist/freedom movements around the globe; and offering activist approaches to teaching the Bible. Each chapter in this volume provides a critical and substantive response from the discipline of Biblical Studies to global political trends. International in scope, with contributors from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America, Oceania, South Africa, and the United States, they address themes such as gender politics, racial injustices, violence toward women, political resistance, and activist hermeneutics and pedagogies. Together they harness the intellectual energies of minoritized Biblical scholars in a nonessentialist manner to reflect on the Bible as a tool for liberating social and political change. Reflecting on the activist potential of the Bible, this book will be of keen interest to scholars in Biblical Studies, Political Theology, and Religious Studies.