Nietzsche, Psychohistory, and the Birth of Christianity

Nietzsche, Psychohistory, and the Birth of Christianity
Author: Morgan Rempel
Publisher: Praeger
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2002-12-30
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN:

This volume attempts to bring order to Nietzsche's scattered reflections on Jesus, St Paul and the birth of Christianity by tracing the development of his ideas and examining the intellectual reality behind his deliberately confrontational remarks concerning early Christianity's key players.

Nietzsche Versus Paul

Nietzsche Versus Paul
Author: Abed Azzam
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2015-03-31
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0231538979

Abed Azzam offers a fresh interpretation of Nietzsche's engagement with the work of Paul the Apostle, reorienting the relationship between the two thinkers while embedding modern philosophy within early Christian theology. Paying careful attention to Nietzsche's dialectics, Azzam situates the philosopher's thought within the history of Christianity, specifically the Pauline dialectics of law and faith, and reveals how atheism is constructed in relation to Christianity. Countering Heidegger's characterization of Nietzsche as an anti-Platonist, Azzam brings the philosopher closer to Paul through a radical rereading of his entire corpus against Christianity. This approach builds a compelling new history of the West resting on a logic of sublimation, from ancient Greece and early Judaism to the death of God. Azzam discovers in Nietzsche's philosophy a solid, tangible Pauline structure and virtual, fragile Greek content, positioning the thinker as a forerunner of the recent "return to Paul" led by Badiou, Agamben, i ek, and Breton. By changing the focus of modern philosophical inquiry from "Nietzsche and philosophy" to "Nietzsche and Christianity," Azzam initiates a major challenge to the primacy of Plato in the history of Western philosophy and narrow certainties regarding Nietzsche's relationship to Christian thought.

Revelation and Reconciliation

Revelation and Reconciliation
Author: Stephen Williams
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
Total Pages: 213
Release: 2021-01-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0227177398

This substantially revised second edition of Revelation and Reconciliation, first published by Cambridge University Press in 1995, gives a fresh account of the intellectual breakdown of Christianity in the West. In contrast to the familiar focus on epistemological questions and the collision between reason and revelation, Stephen Williams argues that underlying this collision is a deeper conflict between belief in human moral self-sufficiency and Christian belief in reconciliation in history. Taking issue with thinkers including the philosopher of science, Michael Polanyi, and the theologian, Colin Gunton, the argument proceeds by examining the contributions of Descartes, Locke, Barth and Nietzsche before coming to conclusions on the theological reading of intellectual history and the prospects of revitalising a contemporary Christian belief in reconciliation in history. Students of both theology and the history of modern thought will find in Williams’ analysis an alternative interpretation of the balance of forces in post-Reformation Western thought with implications for how they should be addressed.

Psychological Analyses and the Historical Jesus

Psychological Analyses and the Historical Jesus
Author: Bas Van Os
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2010-12-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567380432

Since Albert Schweitzer's monumental work, nearly a century ago, psychology has been banned from Historical Jesus research. But both disciplines have advanced and it is time to review the contribution that psychology can make. Bas Van Os examines the problems which surround both the historical and the psychological study of Jesus, such as the fact that we can only work with the surviving traditions that some of his early followers left us. Following this, Van Os proposes a theoretical framework that combines sound psychological theories and critical biblical scholarship to explain how Jesus' life and religious experience impacted the beliefs of his friends and family after his death.

A Marxist Interpretation of Church Leadership

A Marxist Interpretation of Church Leadership
Author: Jon-Arild Johannessen
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 301
Release: 2023-02-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1666920614

A Marxist Interpretation of Church Leadership: Romans 13:1–7 is a study of Romans 13: 1-7 from a Marxist perspective. If too much emphasis is given to obedience, then this may provide the fundament for capitalism ruling with a focus on profit before people.

Bertrand Russell on Nuclear War, Peace, and Language

Bertrand Russell on Nuclear War, Peace, and Language
Author: Alan Schwerin
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 170
Release: 2002-12-30
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0313013403

One of the most prominent philosophers and activists of the 20th century, Bertrand Russell is known not only for his fundamental contributions on the scope of human knowledge and on mathematical logic, but also for his often-controversial views on ethical and linguistic topics. This edited collection of original essays by prominent Russell scholars focuses on the philosopher's positions on the key issues of nuclear war, peace, and language. The contributors critically assess Russell's arguments within their historical and philosophical context and show the significance and topicality that his ideas have retained to the present day, some 80 years since their first articulation. Among the issues examined are Russell's advocacy of preventive war against the Soviets, his activism for peace, his critical assessment of Wittgenstein's analysis of ordinary language, and his account of mathematical statements.

The Big Lebowski and Philosophy

The Big Lebowski and Philosophy
Author: Peter S. Fosl
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2012-05-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1118074564

Celebrate the Dude with an abiding look at the philosophy behind The Big Lebowski Is the Dude a bowling-loving stoner or a philosophical genius living the good life? Naturally, it's the latter, and The Big Lebowski and Philosophy explains why. Enlisting the help of great thinkers like Plato and Nietzsche, the book explores the movie's hidden philosophical layers, cultural reflection, and political commentary. It also answers key questions, including: The Dude abides, but is abiding a virtue? Is the Dude an Americanized version of the Taoist way of life? How does The Big Lebowski illustrate the Just War Theory? How does bowling help Donny, Walter, and the Dude oppose nihilism? Yes, the Dude is deep, and so is this book. Don't watch the movie—or go to Lebowski Fest—without it. Explores many of The Big Lebowski's key themes, such as nihilism, war and politics, money and materialism, idealism and morality, history, and more Gives you new perspective on the movie's characters—the Dude, the Big Lebowski, Walter Sobchak, Donny, Maude Lebowski, Bunny Lebowski, and others Helps you appreciate the Coen Brothers classic even more with the insights of Aristotle, Epicurus, Kant, Derrida, and other philosophical heavyweights

Unmixing the Intellect

Unmixing the Intellect
Author: Joseph Magee
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 180
Release: 2003-06-30
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0313092923

In recent years the majority of scholarship on Aristotle's philosophy of mind has concentrated on his account of sensation and has generally sought to find in his ancient account insights applicable to contemporary materialistic explanations of mental life. Challenging cognitivist and functionalist interpretations, this volume argues that Aristotle believed the mind to be unmixed, or separate from the body. Through careful textual analysis of De Anima and other key texts, the author shows that the Greek philosopher made a clear distinction between perception-an activity realized in material sense organs-and thinking-a process that cannot occur in any material organ. This innovative interpretation of Aristotle's theory of cognitive activities is a worthy contribution to an ongoing debate.

Politics, Pluralism and Religion

Politics, Pluralism and Religion
Author: Chandana Chakrabarti
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2020-05-22
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1527553272

The chapters in this volume discuss the many facets of pluralism in a liberal democracy, as well as the interplay between religion and politics. Religion is a central theme in this book for two reasons. First, religions often claim to possess truths about the nature of God and the proper path to lead in order to achieve eternal life in heaven, or enlightenment or spiritual liberation. Unfortunately, different religions offer different sets of truths on these issues, which create an obvious competition and rivalry between religions. Historically, religious differences have produced countless wars, violent clashes, human rights violations and various forms of religious persecutions. Our record of coexisting peacefully in a religiously pluralistic world has been abysmal at best. Some chapters in this book discuss religious pluralism, the clash between science and religion and the role religious reasons should play in a public dialogue about public policy and law. The second reason why religion is a prominent theme is that, since religion is constitutive of the identities of so many individuals, its influence on politics, for better or for worse, is extremely significant. Many chapters explore the various ways in which religion can affect politics: From the dangers of theocracy, to Jihadist terrorism, to a Hindu approach to addressing terrorism, to a Unitarian Universalist perspective on ethical eating and to the Christian virtue of forgiveness applied to political dispute resolution. All in all, the chapters in this book represent a variety of approaches to understanding the interrelated problems associated with religion and politics in a pluralistic world.

Parmenides of Elea

Parmenides of Elea
Author: Martin J. Henn
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 158
Release: 2003-06-30
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0313072124

Martin J. Henn's Parmenides of Elea offers to the reader a reinvigorating verse translation of the Diels and Kranz B-Fragments of Parmenides cast in rhyming couplet iambic pentameter. Placing Parmenides in his proper historical context by taking seriously the impact of Persian Zoroastrianism on his developing monism, Henn supplies precise interpretation of the most difficult and vexing of Parmenides's fragments, while also providing reliable philosophical analysis of the many seeming contradictions latent in the text. The interpretive essays form a unique contribution to studies of this work, exploring such issues as the sprawling influences of Persian Zoroastrian dualism, literary parallels and contrasts with Hesiod's Theogony, and the radical antithesis between a finite linear and an infinite closed-loop model of space and time. Overall, Henn's work represents a new model for study of a key element of philosophical literature, making it a highly significant addition to the scholarship on the subject.