Religion : Philosophy

Recent critical theory is curiously preoccupied with the metaphors and ideas of early Christianity, especially the religion of Paul. The haunting of secular thought by the very religion it seeks to overcome may seem surprising at first, but Ward Blanton argues that this recent return by theorists to the resources of early Christianity has precedent in modern and ostensibly secularizing philosophy, from Kant to Heidegger. Displacing Christian Origins traces the current critical engagement of Agamben, Derrida, and Žižek, among others, back into nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century philosophers of early Christianity. By comparing these crucial moments in the modern history of philosophy with exemplars of modern biblical scholarship—David Friedrich Strauss, Adolf Deissmann, and Albert Schweitzer—Blanton offers a new way for critical theory to construe the relationship between the modern past and the biblical traditions to which we seem to be drawn once again. An innovative contribution to the intellectual history of biblical exegesis, Displacing Christian Origins will promote informed and fruitful debate between religion and philosophy. more...

Price: $22.50

Relying on the lifetime work of philosopher Ernan McMullin, this book expands our understanding of critical realism beyond a permanent stand off between the subjective and objective, whether in science or theology. Critical realism illuminates the subject and the objectively known simultaneously. Responding to criticisms made against it, this book defends critical realism in science and theology with a specific role to play in our understanding of God. more...

Price: $110.00

In The Ethics of Human Rights, Esther Reed constructs a Christian theology of “right,” “rights” and “natural rights” and does so in constant awareness of and conversation with the public and political implications of such a theology. Reed’s use of Genesis 9:1-17, God's covenant with Noah, enables her critical Christian engagement with issue of right and her application of this Christian theology of rights to the contemporary moral dilemmas of animal rights, the environment, and democracy. more...

Price: $34.95

Evagrius of Pontus and Gregory of Nyssa have either been overlooked by philosophers and theologians in modern times, or overshadowed by their prominent friend and brother (respectively), Basil the Great. Yet they are major figures in the development of Christian thoughts in late antiquity and their works express a unique combination of desert and urban spiritualities in the lived and somewhat turbulent experience of an entire age. They provide a significant link between the great ancient thinkers of the past – Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, Clement and others – and the birth and transmission of the early Medieval period – associated with Boethius, Cassian and Augustine.This book makes accessible, to a wide audience, the thought of Evagrius and Gregory on the soul, in the context of ancient philosophy/theology and the Cappadocians generally. Corrigan argues that in these two figures we witness the birth of new forms of thought and of empirical science in a new key. Evagrius and Gregory are no mere receivers of a monolithic pagan and Christian tradition, but innovative, critical interpreters on the range and limits of cognitive psychology, the soul-body relation, reflexive self-knowledge, personal and human identity and the soul's practical relation to goodness in the context of human experience and divine self-disclosure. This book provides a critical evaluation of their thought on these major issues and argues that in Evagrius and Gregory we see the important integration of many different concerns that later Christian thought was not always able to balance including: mysticism, asceticism, cognitive science, philosophy, and theology. more...

Price: $99.95

Analytical philosophy has dominated the philosophy of religion for at least half a century. Its impact is relished by some and regretted by others, but rarely openly discussed. This is the first ever volume critically and historically to debate its influence. The volume boasts world-renowned contributors who have shaped Anglo-American philosophy of religion over the past fifty years, and also up and coming scholars who will help determine its future. more...

Price: $35.00