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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Aspects of religions (non-Christian) > Theology
This exciting collection of papers is an international, ecumenical,
and interdisciplinary study of Jesus' resurrection that emerged
from the "Resurrection Summit" meeting held in New York at Easter
of 1996. The contributions represent mainstream scholarship on
biblical studies, fundamental theology, systematic theology,
philosophy, moral theology, and homiletics. Contributors represent
a wide range of viewpoints and denominations and include Richard
Swinburne, Janet Martin Soskice, Peter F. Carnley, Sarah Coakley,
Willian Lane Craig, William P. Alston, M. Shawn Copeland, Paul
Rhodes Eddy, Francis Schussler Fiorenza, Brian V. Johnstone, Carey
C. Newman, Alan G. Padgett, Pheme Perkins, Alan F. Segal,
Marguerite Shuster, and John Wilkins. Combined, they offer a
timely, wide ranging, and well balanced work on the central truth
of Christianity."
About Aquinas: St Thomas Aquinas lived from 1224/5 to 1274, mostly
in his native Italy but for a time in France. He was the greatest
of the medieval philosopher/theologians, and one of the most
important of all Western thinkers. His most famous books are the
two summaries of his teachings, the Summa contra gentiles and the
Summa theologiae. About this book: Norman Kretzmann expounds and
criticizes Aquinas's natural theology of creation, which is
`natural' (or philosophical) in virtue of Aquinas's having
developed it without depending on the data of Scripture. The
Metaphysics of Creation is a continuation of the project Kretzmann
began in The Metaphysics of Theism, moving the focus from the first
to the second book of Aquinas's Summa contra gentiles. Here we find
Aquinas building upon his account of the existence and nature of
God, arguing that the existence of things other than God must be
explained by divine creation out of nothing. He develops arguments
to identify God's motivation for creating, to defend the
possibility of a beginningless created universe, and to explain the
origin of species. He then focuses exclusively on creatures with
intellects, with the result that more than half of his natural
theology of creation constitutes a philosophy of mind. Kretzmann
gives a masterful guide through all these arguments. As before, he
not only expounds Aquinas's natural theology, but advocates it as
the best historical instance available to us.
The Russian school of modern Orthodox theology has made an immense
but undervalued contribution to Christian thought. Neglected in
Western theology, and viewed with suspicion by some other schools
of Orthodox theology, its three greatest thinkers have laid the
foundations for a new ecumenism and a recovery of the cosmic
dimension of Christianity. This ground-breaking study includes
biographical sketches of Aleksandr Bukharev (Archimandrite Feodor),
Vladimir Soloviev and Sergii Bulgakov, together with the necessary
historical background. Professor Valliere then examines the
creative ideas they devised or adapted, including the ?humanity of
God?, sophiology, panhumanity, free theocracy, church-and-world
dogmatics and prophetic ecumenism.
Karl Barth (1886-1968) was a prolific theologian of the 20th
century. Dr Gorringe places the theology in its social and
political context, from World War I through to the Cold War by
following Barth's intellectual development through the years that
saw the rise of national socialism and the development of
communism. Barth initiated a theological revolution in his two
"Commentaries on Romans", begun during World War I. His attempt to
deepen this during the turbulent years of the Weimar Republic made
him a focus of theological resistance to Hitler after the rise to
power of the Nazi party. Expelled from Germany, he continued to
defy fashionable opinion by refusing to condemn communism after
World War II. Drawing on a German debate largely ignored by
Anglo-Saxon theology, Dr Gorringe shows that Barth responds to the
events of his time not just in his occasional writings, but in his
magnum opus, the "Church Dogmatics". In conclusion Dr Gorringe asks
what this admittedly patriarchal author still has to contribute to
contemporary theology, and in particular human liberation. This
book is intended for undergraduate courses in theology and history
of doctrine.
Philosophical interest in forgiveness has seen a resurgence. This
interest reflects, at least in part, a large body of new work in
psychology, several newsworthy cases of institutional apology and
forgiveness, and intense and increased attention to the practices
surrounding responsibility, blame, and praise. In this book, some
of the world's leading philosophers present twelve entirely new
essays on forgiveness. Some contributors have been writing about
forgiveness for decades. Others have taken the opportunity here to
develop their thinking about forgiveness they broached in other
work. For some contributors, this is their first time writing on
forgiveness. While all the contributions address core questions
about the nature and norms of forgiveness, they also collectively
break new ground by raising entirely new questions, offering
original proposals and arguments, and making connections to the
topics of free will, moral responsibility, collective wrongdoing,
apology, religion, and our emotions.
Thirty years ago, Alvin Plantinga gave a lecture called "Two Dozen
(or so) Theistic Arguments," which served as an underground
inspiration for two generations of scholars and students. In it, he
proposed a number of novel and creative arguments for the existence
of God which have yet to receive the attention they deserve. In Two
Dozen (or so) Arguments for God, each of Plantinga's original
suggestions, many of which he only briefly sketched, is developed
in detail by a wide variety of accomplished scholars. The authors
look to metaphysics, epistemology, semantics, ethics, aesthetics,
and beyond, finding evidence for God in almost every dimension of
reality. Those arguments new to natural theology are more fully
developed, and well-known arguments are given new life. Not only
does this collection present ground-breaking research, but it lays
the foundations for research projects for years to come.
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