Before he became the 28th President of the United States (1913-21), the 34th Governor of New Jersey (1911-13), or even the 13th President of Princeton University (1902-10), Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) was a scholar and professor. In 1885, he received his Ph.D. in history and political science from Johns Hopkins University, and in 1897, he was granted tenure at Princeton University.

As an educator, and a person of deep faith (his father was a Presbyterian reverend), Woodrow Wilson believed firmly in the importance of the humanities to human flourishing and freedom. In "On Being Human," Wilson sets out his vision for the good life, and offers insight into the foundations of his later political policies. "On Being Human" is among the most personal of Wilson's public writings, revealing an enthusiastic nature at odds with his later staid persona. While the essay makes little direct reference to faith, it does reveal Wilson's view of the good life, which is both hopeful and historical, and draws on both Aristotle's notion of "the golden mean" and Augustine's view of the "ordo amorum" (the order of the loves)-specifically, that the good life consists largely in a well-balanced, harmonious ordering of one's passions and priorities. Wilson's ideal is "the truly human man: a man in whom there is a just balance of faculties, a catholic sympathy—no brawler, no fanatic, no Pharisee, not too credulous in hope, not too desperate in purpose, warm, but not hasty, ardent, and full of definite power, but not running about to be pleased and deceived by every new thing."

"When a Man Comes to Himself," written just a few years later, reveals the wholesome and regenerating change which a man undergoes when he "comes to himself." It is not only after periods of recklessness or infatuation, when he has played the spendthrift or the fool, that a man comes to himself. He comes to himself after experiences of which he alone may be aware.

Peter Manley Scott offers a theological and ethical reading of our present situation. Due to the vigour of its re-engineering of the world by its technologies, western society has entered into a postnatural condition in which standard divisions between the natural and the artificial are no longer convincing. This postnatural development is liberating - both theologically and politically. Scott develops an 'anthropology' that does not repeat Christianity's history of anthropocentrism but instead criticises it by exploring the mutual entanglement of animals, humans and other creatures. Deeply disrespectful of traditional centres of power, his ethical critiques of 'pioneering' technologies expose their anti-social and anti-ecological tendencies and identify possible paths of oppositional political action. This is ethical theology at its best: deeply informed by theological tradition, immersed in contemporary political-technological problematics in radically oppositional ways, and yet fiercely hopeful of a good outcome for animals-human and non-human-and other life in history. Dr Peter Manley Scott is Senior Lecturer in Christian Social Thought and Director of the Lincoln Theological Institute at the University of Manchester, UK.

The theme of this volume is the question of value-perception. It is discussed from different philosophical, psychiatric, theological, and anthropological perspectives. The thesis that unites all the papers is the recognition that we live in a relational, dynamic world, in which we primarily perceive, and that to dissolve values from facts is fundamentally misleading, both in theory as in life. The contributions are the outcome of an energetic conference in 2016 where the problems at stake were rigorously discussed. The results are presented here, and they have an explicit order and are strictly related. It opens with basic questions and observations, then critical opinions and objections come into play, after which the outline of a larger theory of value perception is presented, and at the end some concrete examples from material practices are drawn.

In Creaturely Theology a wide range of first-rate contributors show that theological reflection on non-human animals and related issues are an important though hitherto neglected part of the agenda of Christian theology and related disciplines. The book offers a genuine interdisciplinary conversation between theologians, philosophers and scientists and will be a standard text on the theology of non-human animals for years to come. It is wide-ranging in terms of coverage and accessibly written. It is ideal as a key text in any postgraduate course engaging with the ethics, theology and philosophy of the non-human and the post-human. Ab Professor Celia Deane-Drummond is Professor of Theology and the Biological Sciences and Director of the Centre for Religion and Bioscience at the University of Chester.Dr David Clough is Senior Lecturer in Theology at the University of Chester.

Description: From its very beginning, Christian faith has been engaged with religious violence. The first Christians were persecuted by their co-religionists and then by imperial Rome. Jesus taught them, in such circumstances, not to retaliate, but to be peacemakers, to love their enemies, and to pray for their persecutors. Jesus's response to religious violence of the first century was often ignored, but it was never forgotten. Even during those centuries when the church herself persecuted Christian heretics, Jews, and Muslims, some Christians still struggled to bear witness to the peace mandate of their Lord. In the thirteenth century, Thomas Aquinas wrote a theology to help his Dominican brothers persuade Cathar Christians to return to their Catholic faith peacefully. Ramon Lull, a Christian student of Arabic and the Qur'an, sought to help his fellow Christians recognize the elements of belief they shared in common with the Muslims in their midst. In the fifteenth century, Nicholas of Cusa, a Church Cardinal and theologian, expanded Lull's project to include the newly discovered religions of Asia. In the seventeenth century, Lord Herbert, an English diplomat and lay Christian, began to identify the political union of church and government as a causal factor in the religious warfare of post-Reformation Christendom. One and a half centuries later, Thomas Jefferson, a lay theologian of considerable political stature, won a political struggle in the American colonies to disestablish religion first in his home colony of Virginia and then in the new nation he helped to found. All five of these theologians reclaimed the peace mandate of Jesus in their response to the religious violence of their own eras. All of which points us to some intriguing Christian responses to religious violence in our own century as recounted in the epilogue. Endorsements: ""Peacemaking and Religious Violence brings careful scholarship and a refreshing clarity of expression to a burning contemporary concern: the way that religions either foster violence or defuse it. In a series of marvelously lucid historical vignettes, Johnson illuminates crucial moments in Christianity's response to religious difference. He demonstrates that there is more to this story than is commonly assumed. Alongside the all-too-real exclusivist claims and crusading zeal, he lifts up a series of thinkers in different periods who sketched an alternative history, a path not taken by the majority church, but one urgently in need of appropriation today. Peacemaking and Religious Violence is an extraordinary work: mature, balanced, original. Its unpretentious clarity will commend it to general readers. Its ability to throw striking new light on major gures and topics in Christian theology and history will impress academics. Anyone interested in questions of religious pluralism and social con ict will be enriched and instructed by this study."" --S. Mark Heim Samuel Abbot Professor of Christian Theology, Andover Newton Theological School ""Roger Johnson utilizes in this volume his formidable historical and theological knowledge to appraise two contemporary tides in our culture: a growing Christian peace witness and a growing public concern about religious violence . . . This welcome study enriches our awareness of historical figures some of whom are less well-known and it connects them all in instructive ways. It brings the Constantinian and the contemporary eras into comparative focus, something too rarely done. This is a deeply illuminating and carefully researched text that deserves to be widely read and taken to heart."" --Gene Outka Dwight Professor of Philosophy and Christian Ethics, Yale University ""Sad to say, the peace ethic of Jesus long ago became a minor (some said heretical) part of Christian witness. Yet it has persisted. Today, when we are faced with growing inter-religious violence, Roger Johnson does us a huge service by shining the light of his research on fi

Pharmacists who refuse to fill prescriptions for contraceptives. Surgeons who pray in the OR. Pro-life clinics and end-of-life interventions, intelligent-design activists and stem-cell-research opponents. Is "this "the state of modern medicine in America?

In "Blind Faith, "Dr. Richard P. Sloan examines the fragile balance and dangerous alliance between religion and medicine—two practices that have grown disconcertingly close during the twenty-first century. While Sloan does not dispute the fact that religion can bring a sense of comfort in times of difficulty, he nevertheless believes, and in fact proves, that there is no compelling evidence that faith provides an actual cure for any ailment. By exposing the flawed research, Sloan gives readers the tools to understand when good medical science is subverted and, at the same time, provides a thought-provoking examination into the origins and varieties of faith, and human nature itself.

This book is a facsimile reprint and may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages.

For centuries women, youth and the poor have been seen as objects of Christian ministry, but rarely as those who do ministry themselves. This is so much the case that in some quarters today ministry and mission are bad words, reeking of older and paternalistic models of Christian "service." In this challenging book, Cheryl Sanders demonstrates how mission can be updated. Far from being regressive or irrelevant in a multicultural, nonpatriarchal world, Christian mission can come alive when it is not just ministry to but ministry by marginalized groups seeking justice. Ministry at the Margins is an important Christian ethicist's rousing call to "find grace to articulate a theology of inclusion and to establish inclusive practices and multicultural perspectives that harmonize with the gospel we preach and honor the Christ we proclaim." Essential reading for pastors, church leaders, students, urban missionaries and campus ministers.

This is the first republication of Volume 3 of a rare three volume set of books favoring polygamy. In 1781, when this book was first published, the Reverend Martin Madan was the most famous clergyman in all the world. His Chapel at the Lock Hospital was renowned for its Sunday night concerts and his hymnal was full of majestic songs of worship. He was the most prolific living composer of sacred music and had long been the standard bearer for the Evangelicals. Madan's pen had always been free of mercenary interests since he'd been blessed with a great inheritance and yet this rich man had spent the last thirty-five years of his life ministering to the least beloved of society, the disease ridden prostitutes of the Lock Hospital. The front cover features a portrait of Lock Hospital as it appeared in the 18th century. It was built with funds raised by Martin Madan. Madan was godfather to the famed hymn writer, Charles Wesley and was himself the most prolific hymn composer of his day. This is Volume 3 - In Print Again for the First Time in over 228 years.

In The Destiny of Man, Nikolai Berdyaev sketches the plan of a new ethics. This new ethics will be knowledge not only of good and evil, but also of the tragedy which is constantly present in moral experience and complicates all of man's moral judgments. It will emphasize the crucial importance of the personality and of human freedom. The new ethics will interpret moral life as a creative activity; it will be an ethics of free creativeness, an ethics that combines freedom, compassion, and creativeness.

How applicable is the Bible's moral standard to the complex issues we face today--like stem cell research, euthanasia, gambling, and environmental care? How does a person use Scripture to make ethical decisions? And how do we teach people to think biblically about ethics?
Experienced Bible teacher Walter Kaiser answers these questions by demonstrating how, connecting eighteen key teaching Scriptures to eighteen tough ethical issues. Some examples include connecting poverty and orphans with Isaiah 58:1-12, genetic engineering with Genesis 1:26-39 and 2:15-25, and cohabitation and adultery with 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8. The result is a stimulating resource and guide for preaching and a solid foundation for developing Bible studies. Each chapter also includes concluding points, bibliography, and discussion questions.

Mark Ellingsen dares you to go ahead and sin bravely In this refreshing and unique book, he challenges the religious legalism pervasive throughout American evangelicalism today and encourages a new understanding of what it means to be both a Christian and a human being. Equipped with the joyful, rebellious vision of Martin Luther, father of the Protestant reformation, and the latest in neuroscientific research, Ellingsen offers a new approach for healthy living - one opposed to the duty-oriented, selfish and stifling conception of faith that has gained such a strong foothold in contemporary American culture. It is an approach that fully embraces the active role that God's grace plays in each person's life and the fun and freedom one gains from it.

Beginning with the first theological analysis of Rick Warren's brand of Christianity, this book exposes the burdens and narcissism that purpose-driven and duty-bound living encourages, and includes the purveyors of the Prosperity Gospel, taught by such influential preachers like Joel Osteen, in his critique. Ellingsen writes that brave sinners, aware of God's grace in their lives, instead say "no" to narcissism and "yes" to healthy risk-taking that gets beyond selfish desires to the desire to help one another. When people sin bravely, acknowledging that everything done is done in sin with God's saving grace acting upon them, people can learn to recognize God. This awareness leads to freedom and joy, since the pressure is now removed to do and be good. In addition, total dependence on God entails a self-forgetfulness that leads to happiness. The more boldly someone acknowledges their sin, in failing to take credit for the good they have done, the more focused on God the individual becomes. Correspondingly, this self-forgetful lifestyle is a promising counter-cultural alternative to the cultural narcissism, which so dominate in many segments of contemporary American society. This book demonstrates both how and why brave sinning leads to joy, and in so doing offers readers practical advice on living this way.

Ellingsen also cites recent neurobiological findings showing that when people forget themselves in order to focus on bigger projects, the pleasure centers of the brain are stimulated and people become happier and more content. It is this joyous risk-taking that he suggests brings people closer together, closer to God, and closer to a better understanding of themselves. Sin Bravely dares to be that joyful alternative to the purpose driven life.