I was raised in a mainline Protestant church, but in college I went through personal and spiritual crises that led me to question my most fundamental beliefs about God, the world, and myself.
A fascinating compendiu of early-twentieth-century mechanical devices, this wide-ranging work covers a variety of applications. More than 1,800 engravings-ranging from simple diagrams to detailed cross-sections-illustrate the workings of each item, from simple hooks and leavers to complex machinery used in stea, motive, hydraulic, air, and electric power, navigation, gearing, clocks, mining, co…
Scholars argue over where Hebrews fits in the first-century world. Kenneth L. Schenck works towards resolving this question by approaching Hebrews’ cosmology and eschatology from a text-orientated perspective. After observing that the key passages in the background debate mostly relate to the ‘settings’ of the story of salvation history evoked by Hebrews, Schenck attempts to delineate tho…
Thoughtful and eloquent, as timely (or timeless) now as when it was originally published in 1956, Thoughts in Solitude addresses the pleasure of a solitary life, as well as the necessity for quiet reflection in an age when so little is private. Thomas Merton writes: “When society is made up of men who know no interior solitude it can no longer be held together by love: and consequently it is …
This issue of History looks back at not one, but two monumental revolutions: the Reformation, which began in 1517, and the Russian Revolution of 1917. Separated by 400 years, these two events don’t appear to have much in common, but at their core they are bound together by the power of great writing.....
Epistemology is currently in friendly ferment, bubbling away at the heart of everyday philosophical focus. Encouragingly many epistemologists are sampling and analysing new perplexities and fresh theories. And—a welcome sign—there are even probing assessments of epistemological methodology. What will emerge from this activity? What should emerge from it? How worthwhile a philosophical legac…
Immanuel Kant’s moral theory presupposes a theory of action that has not been well understood. As a consequence, his moral theory has not been well understood, at least in parts. So this book develops an interpretation of Kant’s theory of action in order to help us better understand his moral theory.
In the last few decades philosophers have rediscovered friendship as a distinct topic of interest. Aristotle’s thought has been, justifiably, the starting point for most philosophical work on friendship, and often its focus. This renewal of philosophical interest has seldom, however, translated into interest in what Aquinas and other medieval philosophers had to say about friendship. Interest…
On 5 October 1971, I wrote a short paper on Metaphysics 1004b25–6, for a tutorial with G. E. L. Owen at Harvard. Since then I have intermittently pursued some lines of inquiry connected with that passage; the current result of them is this book. The first chapter gives a survey of its contents, and some idea of the main argument. I try to explore some connexions between different areas of Ari…
This authoritative book introducing Karl Barth is written by leading scholars of his work, drawn from Europe and North America. They offer challenging yet accessible accounts of the major features of Barth's theological work, especially as it has become available through the publication of his collected works, and interact with the very best of contemporary Barth scholarship. The contributors a…
Whether a novel, a movie, or a television show—there is nothing like a good story. Combine compelling characters with dramatic conflict, and audiences will devour each installment until they know the ending.....
The subject of Being is one of the most important of all philosophical concerns. St Thomas Aquinas was one of the greatest of all philosophers. It will be the aim of this book to show that on this crucial topic this first-rank philosopher was thoroughly confused. The project may well seem a bizarre one, and to need explanation at the outset. The explanation will take an autobiographical form
The purpose of this book is to tell the story of how God's Word went from being strictly for those in the pulpit to being read, understood, and acted upon by laypeople. It is a story of tragedy and triumph: spilled blood and the preservation of a sacred treasure.
The aim of this book is to offer such an analysis for those crucial sections of the Critique where Kant presents the constructive side of his theory of knowledge. This is an immodest aim and one that I could not hope to fulfill if I did not stand on the shoulders of giants. Drawing on their work, I shall try to show that the first half of the Critique of Pure Reason contains a sustained and cha…
As I have explained in the “personal introduction” to the first chapter, this book is the outgrowth of my lifelong study in the history of biblical interpretation, as amplified more recently by my consideration of the analogy between this history and the history of constitutional interpretation...
Before me is a grassy green field. A line of trees marks its far edge, which is punctuated by a spruce on its left side and a maple on its right. Birds are singing. A warm breeze brings the smell of roses from a nearby trellis. I reach for a glass of iced tea, still cold to the touch and flavored by fresh mint. I am alert, the air is clear, the scene is quiet. My perceptions are quite distinct.
Kierkegaard and Philosophy: Selected Essays makes seventeen of the most important papers on Kierkegaard available in one place for the first time. Their author, renowned Kierkegaard scholar Alastair Hannay, has substantially revised many of his earlier essays and prepared three new essays especially for this volume.
"It is a strange fact that we have never known with certainty who produced the book that has played such a central role in our civilization," writes Friedman, a foremost Bible scholar. From this point he begins an investigation and analysis that readsa as compellingly as a good detective story. Focusing on the central books of the Old Testament-Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuterono…
THIS BOOK IS about the young Kant. It is an investigation of the first two decades of his philosophical life, from the Thoughts on the True Estimation of Living Forces (1746/7) to the Dreams of a Spirit-Seer (1766). I examine the rise and fall of the ‘‘precritical’’ theories and place them in their historical and topical context—exploring how Kant resolved problems his predecessors an…
This book represents an attempt to address questions of where humanity is going in terms of technological enhancement, bioengineering, and, in particular, artificial intelligence. Will we be able to construct artificial life and superintelligence? Will humans so modify themselves that they become something else entirely, and if so, what implications do advances in AI have on our worldviews in g…
At his inauguration to the chair in The History of Systems of Thought’ at the Collegè de France in Paris in 1970 Michel Foucault commented on the difficulties, the responsibilities and the risks, associated with entering the world of discourse. I suspect most of us can understand Foucault’s preference, namely to be already within discourse, to be ‘borne way beyond all possible beginnings…
This book is an attempt to bring interpretation under close scrutiny, not least as there is a widespread opinion that such an activity is something that comes naturally. What, however, does not come naturally, are the forms interpretation takes; thus their inspection will be the main objective of the argument of this book. An anatomy of interpretation is all the more pertinent as we currently w…
Angels. We all know what they look like. They have wings and halos. They appear in children’s nativity plays. They wear long white robes, apart from cherubs, who are like naked fat little children. They live in heaven on clouds but come to earth to guard or to guide. They are portrayed in stained glass windows and look down protectively from gravestones, but they also appear in films, cartoon…
This introductory-level text offers students and instructors a powerful pedagogical tool for increasing students ability to understand, analyze, evaluate, and construct arguments. THE POWER OF LOGIC provides balanced coverage of informal logic, traditional categorical logic, and modern symbolic logic. the authors direct and accessible writing style, along with a wealth of examples and imaginati…
Most significant problems of contemporary life have their origins in nihilism and its paradoxical logic, which is simultaneously destructive to, and constitutive of, society. Yet, in social theory, nihilism is a surprisingly under-researched topic.
After first publishing this book in 1995, in subsequent reprintings I was able to correct a few errata, add a biblical index, and update the bibliography. For the present task of thoroughly revising the whole text, I need to take account of the numerous biblical, historical, and systematic studies of Jesus that have appeared in recent years. Many valuable, as well as some questionable, books an…
Augustine of Hippo (354–430), whose accounts of the Trinity have heavily influenced much subsequent Western theology, has often been accused of over-emphasizing the unity of God and thus been maligned as a source of persistent problems in contemporary religious thought. In Augustine and the Trinity , Lewis Ayres offers a new treatment of this important figure, demonstrating how Augustine’s…
This book deals with the early history of the process that advanced atheism, agnosticism, and religious unbelief. This chapter discusses the coverage of the book and provides a brief background of the individuals who overtly rejected religious faith from 1520 to 1780. That period saw the fears that unbelief and irreligion were on the rise, as well as sustained and systematic attacks on Christia…
Issues of gender and sexuality have recently come to the fore in all humanities disciplines, and this book reflects this broad interdisciplinary situation, although its own standpoint is a theological one. In contrast to many contemporary feminist theologies, gender and sexuality (eros) are here understood within a distinctively Christian context characterized by the reality of agape - the New …
Divided Kingdom is the second part of a study of the early modern origins of Irish society. As with the first volume, Contested Island, its main concern is with the changing relationships and patterns of interaction among the different sections of an ethnically, and by this time religiously, divided society, continuing the story from Ireland’s part in the British civil wars of the mid-sevente…
The rise of modern science and the proclaimed “death” of God in the nineteenth century led to a radical questioning of divine action and authorship – Bultmann’s celebrated “demythologizing”. Remythologizing Theology moves in another direction that begins by taking seriously the biblical accounts of God’s speaking. It establishes divine communicative action as the formal and materi…
What has Washington to do with Jerusalem? In the raging debates about the relationship between religion and politics, no one has explored the religious benefits and challenges of public engagement for Christian believers – until now. This ground-breaking book defends and details Christian believers’ engagement in contemporary pluralistic public life, not from the perspective of some neutral…
What is Christian wisdom for living in the twenty-first century? Where is it to be found? How can it be learnt? In the midst of diverse religions and worldviews and the urgencies and complexities of contemporary life, David Ford explores a Christian way of uniting love of wisdom with wisdom in love....
How can we live together in the midst of our differences? This is one of the most pressing questions of our time. Tolerance has been the bedrock of political liberalism, while proponents of agonistic political thought and radical democracy have sought an answer that allows a deeper celebration of difference.
How can theology think and talk about history? Building on the work of the major twentieth-century theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar as well as entering into sharp critical debate with him, this book sets out to examine the value and the potential of a ‘theodramatic’ conception of history.
If people claim to speak for God, what enables us to know when to credit or discredit the claim? This book analyses the criteria for discernment of prophetic authenticity in the Old Testament, and for discernment of apostolic authenticity in the New Testament; and also considers their validity and viability in a contemporary context.
How, in this Christian age of belief, can we draw sense from the ritual acts of Christians assembled in worship? Convinced that people shape their meanings from the meanings available to them, Graham Hughes inquires into liturgical constructions of meaning within the larger cultural context of late twentieth-century meaning theory. Major theories of meaning are examined in terms of their contri…
This book reconfigures the basic problem of Christian thinking or theological cognition as a twofold demand for integrity: integrity of reason and integrity of transcendence....
This book argues that the modern separation of humanity from nature can be traced to the displacement of the triune God. Locating the source of our current ecological crisis in this separation, Peter Scott argues that it can be healed only within theology, through a revival of a Trinitarian doctrine of creation interacting with political philosophies of ecology. Drawing insights from deep ecolo…
Theology of religions is an area of theological reflection on interreligious relations which raises fundamental questions not just for Christians but for all people of faith in a pluralist, post-modern world. How to practise a religious faith with integrity while respecting other claims to ultimate truth? Must ‘the other’ always be regarded as a problematic complication on the fringes of a…
We have, as a theological community, generally lost a language in which to speak of the createdness of the world. As a consequence, our discourses of reason can not bridge the way we know God and the way we know the world....
How can academic biblical interpretation fruitfully contribute to Christian belief and living in today’s world? This book offers a synthesis of some of the best in pre-modern, modern, and post-modern approaches to biblical interpretation, and locates the discipline within a self-critical trinitarian rule of faith, where historical criticism, systematic theology, ethics, and spirituality are …
This book argues that modern ecclesiology exhibits two unfortunate tendencies: it describes the church in ideal terms, rather than directly addressing the problems of its everyday, sinful activity; and it undermines the distinctiveness of the church and its way of life. The book analyzes the impact of pluralism and inclusivism upon ecclesiology, and draws upon von Balthasar’s theodramatic the…
This book brings together for the first time traditional Christian theological perspectives on truth and reality with a contemporary philosophical view of the place of language in both divine and worldly reality...
Bearing witness, a term often used by psychologists, happens when one person listens as another shares an experience. The act of being heard often gives support to the teller, validating their story and giving meaning to the event. Objects can also bear witness, and historians rely on their testimony to learn about the past. The Gothic masterpiece Notre Dame de Paris bore witness to the turbule…
This book tests the explanatory and descriptive power of the doctrine of sin in relation to two concrete situations: sexual abuse of children and the holocaust. Taking seriously the explanatory power of secular discourses for analysing and regulating therapeutic action in relation to such situations, the book asks whether the theological language of sin can offer further illumination by speakin…
An enterprise like this does not see the light of day without a large network of support, going back many years. I owe an immense debt of gratitude to one of my first teachers, Colin Kingsley of Edinburgh University, whose academic interests combined with high standards of performance provided an inspiration which has never waned, and to James Torrance, who many years ago introduced me to the l…
The first book of Moses, which has the superscription בראשׁיח in the original, Γένεσις Κόσμον in the Cod. Alex. of the lxx, and is called liber creationis by the Rabbins, has received the name of Genesis from its entire contents...
The ultimate aim of history is human self-knowledge. In the words of 20th-century historian R. G. Collingwood: “The value of history is that it teaches us what man has done and thus what man is.”
Since its publication in 1950, Protestant Biblical interpretation has been a standard introduction to hermeneutics in evangelical colleges and seminaries. Twice revised, this textbook has sold well over 100,000 copies. “Hermeneutics,” writes the author, “is the science and art of Biblical interpretation.. . .As such it forms one of the most important members of the theological sciences. …