Confronting the Predicament of Belief

Confronting the Predicament of Belief
Author: James W. Walters
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2020-09-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1725283603

Instead of suppressing doubts about religious claims, what if we engage them head-on? Imagine theologians who welcome the uncomfortable questions rather than immunizing their proposals from criticisms. What happens when discussions of the deepest issues—God and science, faith and doubt, suffering and evil, death and resurrection—are guided by the real-life challenges of believing and living in today’s world? The probing queries and constructive replies published here for the first time invite you into the living experience of doubt and faith, the spiritual quest of our age. They invite readers to consider not only what they believe, but also how they hold their beliefs . . . and what they do with them in everyday life.

Belief in Dialogue

Belief in Dialogue
Author: B. Marie Christian
Publisher: Other Press (NY)
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2005
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN:

The works of Julia Alvarez, Ana Castillo, Sandra Cisneros, Rosario Ferre, Graciela Limon, Pat Mora, Judith Ortiz Cofer, and Esmerelda Santiago, among others, are illuminated here. By uniting historical, cultural, religious, and literary commentary,Belief in Dialogueis designed to help the student or general reader to more completely enjoy and understand contemporary Latina writing. These highly readable discussions are informed by contemporary feminist and postcolonialist thought about color, gender, race, class, and region. Readers of literature being produced by Latina writers in the U.S. today may well miss the full impact of their work if they do not understand the complex spirituality underlying these writings. In addition to influences from the colonial Catholic Church, Latina religious heritage reflects numerous other philosophies: Amerindian spiritual beliefs, African spiritism brought by the slave trade, varieties of European spiritism, liberation theology, and mujerista theology. In response to this predicament, the author considers the long history of resistance and adaptation to Catholic and Christian colonization, including the reinterpretation of figures such as the Virgin of Guadalupe and the Blessed Virgin Mary. The result is a rich and constantly changing spiritual philosophy that is evident in the content, metaphor, and psychological motivation in the fiction and nonfiction produced.

Confronting the Predicament of Belief

Confronting the Predicament of Belief
Author: James W. Walters
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2020-09-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 172528362X

Instead of suppressing doubts about religious claims, what if we engage them head-on? Imagine theologians who welcome the uncomfortable questions rather than immunizing their proposals from criticisms. What happens when discussions of the deepest issues—God and science, faith and doubt, suffering and evil, death and resurrection—are guided by the real-life challenges of believing and living in today’s world? The probing queries and constructive replies published here for the first time invite you into the living experience of doubt and faith, the spiritual quest of our age. They invite readers to consider not only what they believe, but also how they hold their beliefs . . . and what they do with them in everyday life.

God and Gravity

God and Gravity
Author: Philip Clayton
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 486
Release: 2018-08-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1532649584

Philip Clayton is well known as a major thinker working at the interface of science, philosophy, and Christian theology. Here, for the first time, a representative selection of his far-reaching works have been brought together into one place. After a general introduction to the breadth of Clayton's writing, the book is divided into six main sections: 1) Science & Religion; 2) Science, Faith, & God; 3) Panentheistic Reflections on Science & Theology; 4) Science & Emergence; 5) Science, Spirit, & Divine Action; and 6) Progressive Theology. This introduction and reader will become the go-to text for all inquiries regarding Philip Clayton's expansive theology.

Hope after Faith

Hope after Faith
Author: Jerry DeWitt
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2013-06-25
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0306822504

Atheism's leading lights have long been intellectuals raised in the secular and academic worlds: Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and the late Christopher Hitchens. By contrast, Jerry DeWitt was born and bred into the church and was in fact a Pentecostal preacher before arriving at atheism through an extraordinary dialogue with faith that spanned more than a quarter of a century. Hope After Faith is his account of that journey. DeWitt was a pastor in the town of DeRidder, Louisiana, and was a fixture of the community. In private, however, he'd begun to question his faith. Late one night in May 2011, a member of his flock called seeking prayer for her brother who had been in a serious accident. As DeWitt searched for the right words to console her, speech failed him, and he found that the faith which once had formed the cornerstone of his life had finally crumbled to dust. When it became public knowledge that DeWitt was now an atheist, he found himself shunned by much of DeRidder's highly religious community, losing nearly everything he'd known. DeWitt's struggle for identity and meaning mirrors the one currently facing millions of people around the world. With both agnosticism and atheism entering the mainstream—one in five Americans now claim no religious affiliation, according to a recent study—the moment has arrived for a new atheist voice, one that is respectful of faith and religious traditions yet warmly embraces a life free of religion, finding not skepticism and cold doubt but rather profound meaning and hope. Hope After Faith is the story of one man's evolution toward a committed and considered atheism, one driven by humanism, a profound moral dimension, and a happiness and self-confidence obtained through living free of fear.

Life After Faith

Life After Faith
Author: Philip Kitcher
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2014-10-28
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0300210345

Although there is no shortage of recent books arguing against religion, few offer a positive alternative—how anyone might live a fulfilling life without the support of religious beliefs. This enlightening book fills the gap. Philip Kitcher constructs an original and persuasive secular perspective, one that answers human needs, recognizes the objectivity of values, and provides for the universal desire for meaningfulness. Kitcher thoughtfully and sensitively considers how secularism can respond to the worries and challenges that all people confront, including the issue of mortality. He investigates how secular lives compare with those of people who adopt religious doctrines as literal truth, as well as those who embrace less literalistic versions of religion. Whereas religious belief has been important in past times, Kitcher concludes that evolution away from religion is now essential. He envisions the successors to religious life, when the senses of identity and community traditionally fostered by religion will instead draw on a broader range of cultural items—those provided by poets, filmmakers, musicians, artists, scientists, and others. With clarity and deep insight, Kitcher reveals the power of secular humanism to encourage fulfilling human lives built on ethical truth.

The Predicament of Belief

The Predicament of Belief
Author: Philip Clayton
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2011-10-27
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 019162067X

Does it make sense - can it make sense - for someone who appreciates the explanatory power of modern science to continue believing in a traditional religious account of the ultimate nature and purpose of our universe? This book is intended for those who care about that question and are dissatisfied with the rigid dichotomies that dominate the contemporary debate. The extremists won't be interested - those who assume that science answers all the questions that matter, and those so certain of their religious faith that dialogue with science, philosophy, or other faith traditions seems unnecessary. But far more people today recognize that matters of faith are complex, that doubt is endemic to belief, and that dialogue is indispensable in our day. In eight probing chapters, the authors of The Predicament of Belief consider the most urgent reasons for doubting that religious claims - in particular, those embedded in the Christian tradition - are likely to be true. They develop a version of Christian faith that preserves the tradition's core insights but also gauges the varying degrees of certainty with which those insights can still be affirmed. Along the way, they address such questions as the ultimate origin of the universe, the existence of innocent suffering, the challenge of religious plurality, and how to understand the extraordinary claim that an ancient teacher rose from the dead. They end with a discussion of what their conclusions imply about the present state and future structure of churches and other communities in which Christian affirmations are made.

Hope for the Earth

Hope for the Earth
Author: Ernst M. Conradie
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2005-05-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1725214091

'Hope for the Earth' explores the viability of an eschatological approach to an ecological theology, spirituality, and praxis in the South African context. The basic intuition of such an eschatological approach is that an environmental praxis can only be empowered on the basis of an adequate understanding of Christian hope. Despair in the face of environmental destruction will inevitably lead to a spirit of resignation. Where, then, can a vision of hope that includes hope for the earth be found? The author proposes a "road map" for eschatology based on the observation that eschatology has traditionally responded to three aspects of the human predicament, namely 1) the evil effects of sin; 2) the problem of finitude and transience; and 3) the limitations of human power and knowledge in space (Part A). This analysis is used to fathom the depths of despair as a result of environmental destruction (Part B). The Biblical roots and subsequent history of Christian eschatology are discussed briefly (Part C). Recent contributions in Christian eschatology, ecological theology, cosmology, and South African expressions of hope are explored in depth in search of a vision of hope that includes hope for the earth itself (Part D). The eschatological road map is used to develop a vision of hope for the earth on the basis of a theology of life: life amidst death and destruction, life beyond death and eternal life in the presence of God (Part E). Finally the implications of this vision for an ecological ethos, spirituality, and praxis in the South African context are indicated (Part F).

Christian Hope in Context I

Christian Hope in Context I
Author: A. van Egmond
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2019-12-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004389113

The International Reformed Theological Institute (IRTI) was founded in 1995. Its purpose is to create a platform where Reformed theologians from all over the world can meet each other, become acquainted with each other's work, discuss theological issues and stimulate each other in scholarly theological research. The members of IRTI present their work in the series Studies in Reformed Theology. Thus, the volumes of this series offer a perspective on the theological insights and spirituality of Reformed theologians all over the world. The fourth and fifth volume of the series Studies in Reformed Theology contain the contributions to the third international conference of the IRTI. Leading theme of the conference was 'Christian Hope in Context.' The fourth volume contains contributions from the perspective of historical research, biblical theology, systematic theology and the relation between biblical and secular literature. All articles in one way or another reflect the cotnext of the author.