How do Ghanaian Pentecostals resolve the contradictions of their own faith while remaining faithful to their religious identity? Bringing together the anthropology of Christianity and the anthropology of ethics, Girish Daswani's Looking Back, Moving Forward investigates the compromises with the past that members of Ghana's Church of Pentecost make in order to remain committed Christians. Even as church members embrace the break with the past that comes from being "born-again," many are less concerned with the boundaries of Christian practice than with interpersonal questions - the continuity of suffering after conversion, the causes of unhealthy relationships, the changes brought about by migration - and how to deal with them. By paying ethnographic attention to the embodied practices, interpersonal relationships, and moments of self-reflection in the lives of members of the Church of Pentecost in Ghana and amongst the Ghanaian diaspora in London, Looking Back, Moving Forward explores ethical practice as it emerges out of the questions that church members and other Ghanaian Pentecostals ask themselves.

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1905 Edition.

Founding father Thomas Jefferson believed that "religion is a matter which lies solely between Man and his God," but these days many people seem to have forgotten this ideal. Conservatives claim America is a "Christian nation" and urge that laws be structured around religious convictions. Hardcore atheists, meanwhile, seek to undermine and attack religion at all levels. Surely there must be a middle ground.
In "How to Be Secular," Jacques Berlinerblau issues a call to the moderates--those who are tired of the belligerence on the fringes--that we return to America's long tradition of secularism, which seeks to protect both freedom from and for religion. He looks at the roots of secularism and examines how it should be bolstered and strengthened so that Americans of all stripes can live together peacefully.
"Jacques Berlinerblau mounts a careful, judicious, and compelling argument that America needs more secularists . . . The author's argument merits a wide hearing and will change the way we think and talk about religious freedom." --Randall Balmer, author of "Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts Faith and Threatens America"

This book examines one of the most pressing cultural concerns that surfaced in the last decade - the question of the place and significance of the animal. This collection of essays represents the outcome of various conversations regarding animal studies and shows multidisciplinarity at its very best, namely, a rigorous approach within one discipline in conversation with others around a common theme. The contributors discuss the most relevant disciplines regarding this conversation, namely: philosophy, anthropology, religious studies, theology, history of religions, archaeology and cultural studies. The first section, Thinking about Animals, explores philosophical, anthropological and religious perspectives, raising general questions about the human perception of animals and its crucial cultural significance. The second section explores the intriguing topic of the way animals have been used historically as religious symbols and in religious rituals. The third section re-examines some Christian theological and biblical approaches to animals in the light of current concerns. The final section extends the implications of traditional views about other animals to more specific ethical theories and practices.

Catholic and Franciscan Ethics: The Essentials gives students a concise synopsis of the Catholic and Franciscan ethical traditions. The chapters examine the two separately, yet also show how they are historically entangled and related and how together they create a rich, multi-dimensional ethical framework. The early chapters focus specifically on the Catholic ethical tradition. In the later chapters students become familiar with the Franciscan tradition and learn how it grew out of, and contributes back to, Catholic ethics. The book includes diagrams, end-of-chapter summaries of key concepts, review and discussion questions, and "call outs", all of which energize the text and support comprehension and retention. The appendices include a glossary, additional concept summaries, and recommendations for additional reading. Catholic and Franciscan Ethics: The Essentials is intended to serve as a supplemental text in courses on ethics at Catholic colleges and universities. It is also suitable for classes in moral theology and upper division applied ethics courses.

The "Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics" continues to be an essential resource for students and faculty pursuing the latest developments in Christian and religious ethics, publishing refereed scholarly articles on a variety of topics. The Journal also contains book reviews of the latest scholarship in the field.

Description: In the Fray collects David Gushee's most significant essays over twenty years as a Christian intellectual. Most of the essays were written in situations of ethical conflict on the highly contested ground of Christian public ethics. Topics addressed include torture, climate change, marriage and divorce, the treatment of gays and lesbians in the church, war, genocide, nuclear weapons, race, global poverty, faith and politics, Israel/Palestine, and even whether Christian ethics is a real academic discipline. Quite visible in the collection is Gushee's deep research interest in the Nazi era in Germany and how the churches fared in resisting Nazi intimidations and seductions and, finally, the Holocaust. All essays reflect the desire for a church that has learned the lessons of that period--a church with resistance to racism, militarism, nationalism, and other social-ideological toxins, and with the discernment and courage to resist these in favor of a courageous allegiance to the lordship of Christ at the time of testing. Considerable attention is directed to contesting some of the public ethics found in the author's own US evangelical Christian community. Concluding reflections on Gushee's ethical vision are offered in an illuminating essay by senior Christian ethicist Glen Harold Stassen.

Description: Ought we conceive of theological ethics as an activity that draws from a community's vision of human goodness and that has implications for the kind of person each of us is to be? Or, can students of the discipline map the ethical implications of what Christians confess about God, themselves, and the world while remaining indifferent to these claims? Habituated by modern moral theories such as consequentialism and deontology, Mark Ryan argues, we too often assume that Christian ethics makes no claim on the character of its students and teachers. It is rather like yet another department store within the shopping mall of ideas and ideologies to which advanced education provides access. By arguing that theological ethics is an activity by nature ""political,"" the author endeavors to show us that to do Christian ethics is to be habituated into ways of talking and seeing that put us on a path toward the good. The author thus affirms the claim that theological ethics is a life-changing practice. But why is it so? This book endeavors to display a philosophical basis for this claim, by articulating the political character of practical reason. Through rigorous conversation with G. E. M. Anscombe, Charles Taylor, Stanley Hauerwas, Alasdair MacIntyre, and Jeffrey Stout, Ryan provides an account of practical reasoning that enables us to rightly conceive theological ethics as a discipline that ought to change our lives. Endorsements: Drawing on Elizabeth Anscombe's significant account of practical reason, Mark Ryan illumines not only my work but how theologians must reason to make clear the truthfulness of the claims we make as Christians. This is an extremely important book, which hopefully will receive the attention it deserves. Few are able to negotiate these philosophical waters with such clarity."" -Stanley Hauerwas Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics Duke Divinity School ""This book is as discerning as its title. By way of a critical study of Jeffry Stout's Democracy and Tradition, author Mark Ryan offers a surprising defense of the theopolitical thinkers Stout often criticizes: Hauerwas and MacIntrye. The defense is surprising because it takes its measure not from postliberal theology but from the claim of analytic philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe: that ethics is mere speculation unless it speaks to the realities of human desire. By this measure, argues Ryan, Hauerwas's Christian ethics may win reason's trust and philosophic ethics may lose it."" -Peter Ochs Bronfman Professor of Modern Judaic Studies University of Virginia ""We have long lacked a guide for the philosophical background of Hauerwas's thought, especially as it comes from the work of idiosyncratic anglophone philosophers like Elizabeth Anscombe, Iris Murdoch, and Charles Taylor. Now Mark Ryan has offered us one such guide, and a generous and insightful one at that. The book represents a new step into philosophical seriousness for those of a Hauerwasian persuasion. Offering a 'non-reductive understanding of politics' as the context in which to see how practical reason becomes what it aims to be, Ryan shows us how Hauerwas's ethics is actually also a politics. His provocative but charitable critiques of Charles Taylor, Gloria Albrecht, and Jeff Stout help flesh out how Hauerwas's work is both engaged with and distinct from some of his sharpest interlocutors."" -Charles Mathewes Associate Professor of Religious Studies University of Virginia ""Mark Ryan's The Politics of Practical Reason is a thoughtful, insightful, and timely book, patiently illuminating the importance of formation as a central yet overlooked aspect of ethical deliberation. Ryan highlights the virtues of Hauerwas's embodied, storied, and social approach to ethics by reading him as taking up Anscombe's challenge. By incisively articulating the limitations of Stout's and Taylor's alternatives, this book deepens the character of conversation regarding practical reason in religi

As demonstrated in any conflict, war is violent and causes grave harms to innocent persons, even when fought in compliance with just war criteria. In this book, Rosemary Kellison presents a feminist critique of just war reasoning, with particular focus on the issue of responsibility for harm to noncombatants. Contemporary just war reasoning denies the violence of war by suggesting that many of the harms caused by war are necessary, though regrettable, injuries for which inflicting agents bear no responsibility. She challenges this narrow understanding of responsibility through a feminist ethical approach that emphasizes the relationality of humans and the resulting asymmetries in their relative power and vulnerability. According to this approach, the powerful individual and collective agents who inflict harm during war are responsible for recognizing and responding to the vulnerable persons they harm, and thereby reducing the likelihood of future violence. Kellison's volume goes beyond abstract theoretical work to consider the real implications of an important ethical problem.

In Orthodoxy, Gilbert K. Chesterton explains how and why he came to believe in Christianity. In the book, Chesterton takes the spiritually curious reader on an intellectual quest. While looking for the meaning of life, he finds truth that uniquely fulfills human needs. This is the truth revealed in Christianity. Chesterton likens this discovery to a man setting off from the south coast of England, journeying for many days, only to arrive at Brighton, the point he originally left from. Such a man, he proposes, would see the wondrous place he grew up in with newly appreciative eyes. This is a common theme in Chesterton's works, and one which he gave fictional embodiment to in Manalive. A truly lively and enlightening book Wilder Publications is a green publisher. All of our books are printed to order. This reduces waste and helps us keep prices low while greatly reducing our impact on the environment.

This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from GeneralBooksClub.com. You can also preview excerpts from the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Published by: Pilgrim Press in 1912 in 527 pages; Subjects: Sociology, Christian; Christian sociology; Religion / Christian Theology / General; Religion / Christian Theology / Ethics; Religion / Theology; Social Science / Social Work; Social Science / Sociology of Religion;

Robin Gill's A Textbook of Christian Ethics continues to be popular with students and lecturers - it is difficult to find another textbook in the field that combines primary texts with extensive analysis and commentary. This 4th edition has been extensively revised and it incorporates up-to-date developments in the field of Christian ethics. Gill retains all the popular features of the previous editions, including its layout and structure. This new edition focuses more strongly throughout on current debates, which are expanded on a variety of topics, such as global Christianity, global economics, euthanasia and global justice or the environment. Gill uses modern texts by William Schweiker, Mark Allman, and Rowan Williams, alongside the classical texts from Augustine, Aquinas and Luther. Gill analyses these texts in a systematic and balanced way, examining differing ethical positions and arguments together with the social and historical factors which shaped them.

Much current commentary on climate change, both secular and theological, focuses on the duties of individual citizens to reduce their consumption of fossil fuels. In A Political Theology of Climate Change, however, Michael Northcott discusses nations as key agents in the climate crisis. Against the anti-national trend of contemporary political theology, Northcott renarrates the origins of the nations in the divine ordering of history. In dialogue with Giambattista Vico, Carl Schmitt, Alasdair MacIntyre, and other writers, he argues that nations have legal and moral responsibilities to rule over limited terrains and to guard a just and fair distribution of the fruits of the earth within the ecological limits of those terrains. As part of his study, Northcott brilliantly reveals how the prevalent nature-culture divide in Western culture, including its notion of nature as -private property, - has contributed to the global ecological crisis. While addressing real difficulties and global controversies surrounding climate change, Northcott presents substantial and persuasive fare in his Political Theology of Climate Change.

An abridged edition to include: The Problem - Religious Affiliation & Social Stratification - The Spirit of Capitalism - Luther's Conception of the Calling - Task of the Investigation - The Practical Ethics of the Ascetic Branches of Protestantism - The Religious Foundations of Worldly Asceticism - Asceticism and the Spirit of Capitalism - Endnotes

Twenty-first century's nightly news can't pass by without running another story on religious conflict or clashes. While these modern-day battles play out for the world to see, the issues that act as a catalyst for them are deeply embedded in ancient texts that claim to contain absolute certainties. An eye-opening and vitally-important new book has burst upon the literary scene called Allah, Jesus, and Yahweh: The Gods That Failed. The author, Gordon Harrison, conducts a definitive expose of the ravages caused by religion and breaks new ground in the world of investigative literature. In this riveting history of three of the world's major religions-Islam, Christianity, and Judaism-this book explores the relationship between belief and the suspension of logic with its consequential suffering. Beginning with the September 480 BCE Battle of Marathon, the author traces the spread of Eastern belief systems (and the three major religions in particular) from the Middle East into Europe and the rest of the world. Citing examples of how fanatic elements of each faith have caused war, bloodshed, confusion and suffering, Harrison makes his case for reason and freethinking. As the author notes the parlance in vogue for this present invasion is a clash of civilizations-East versus West But this is not entirely the case. There is a clash, but we have confused the combatants. Many in the West do not intend to fight for the preservation of Christianity; some in the East feel the same about Islam. What we will defend is freedom, democracy, and the values of the Enlightenment versus submission, dictatorship, and the buzz of the hive mind. A colossal clash of ideals is underway between the Enlightenment and the Army of the Night-those who "know" they have absolute certainty without evidence. Religion is certainty without proof; science is proof without certainty. From religion to science, it has been a long night's journey into light. Harrison asks the reader to hold his hand, walk with him through these pages, and see the glory and the horror we have created. Since its release, the book has garnered a consistent string of rave reviews-here are three: This is an extremely impressive book, one that should enlighten any open-minded reader, theist and non-theist alike. Harrison transports the reader from the ancient battle at Marathon across two millennia, following the march of civilization to the present day. He shows in a clear and engaging manner the moral corruption that is inherent in the ancient texts that continue to serve as the scriptural foundations of modern religions. His compelling mixture of philosophy, theology, astronomy, psychology and physics, presented always in a very accessible and entertaining style, persuasively demonstrates how science illuminates and promotes understanding while religion ossifies thinking patterns and all too often produces intergroup conflict. I highly recommend this book to all. By James Alcock, Professor of Psychology at York University, Toronto Something that worked really well for me was the author's use of personal anecdotes to illustrate some of his arguments. The one that really stood out was the story about Mother Courage. The author re-creates his experience with the bear and her cubs very vividly for the reader. I found it not only very germane to his point about the presence of morality in nature, but also very moving. This book deserves a wide readership. By Dirk Verhulst, English Teacher. Hilarious and powerful Equal to anything written by Hitchens, Harris, Dawkins, and Dennett, the Four Horsemen of the Anti-Apocalypse. Allah, Jesus, and Yahweh takes a deeper view of time and a more humorous Mark Twain narrative approach than those authors do. By Bill Walker, Freethinker"

Having taught on ethics in Africa for almost a decade, James Nkansah-Obrempong presents a work that goes some way to addressing the dearth of materials on ethics that combine African social, religious, cultural and moral values with biblical and theological values. Integrating these from African, Western and biblical contexts Nkansah demonstrates how important they are for dealing with contemporary moral and social issues facing the church in Africa and African societies. The book develops a theoretical, biblical and theological foundation for Theological Ethics and uses this to address the broader issues that affect the socio-political and economic life of African people and the church.