Paul, Philosophy, and the Theopolitical Vision

Paul, Philosophy, and the Theopolitical Vision
Author: Douglas Harink
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 351
Release: 2010-02-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1606086626

The apostle Paul was a man of many journeys. We are usually familiar with the geographical ones he made in his own time. This volume traces others--Paul's journeys in our time, as he is co-opted or invited to travel (sometimes as abused slave, sometimes as trusted guide) with modern and recent Continental philosophers and political theorists. Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Benjamin; Taubes, Badiou, Zizek, and Agamben--Paul journeys here among the philosophers. In these essays you are invited to travel with them into the regions of philosophy, hermeneutics, political theory, and theology. You will certainly hear the philosophers speak. But Paul will not remain silent. Above the sounds of the journey his voice comes through, loud and clear.

The Politics of Practical Reason

The Politics of Practical Reason
Author: Mark Ryan
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2011-06-09
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1621893170

Ought we conceive of theological ethics as an activity that draws from a community's vision of human goodness and that has implications for the kind of person each of us is to be? Or, can students of the discipline map the ethical implications of what Christians confess about God, themselves, and the world while remaining indifferent to these claims? Habituated by modern moral theories such as consequentialism and deontology, Mark Ryan argues, we too often assume that Christian ethics makes no claim on the character of its students and teachers. It is rather like yet another department store within the shopping mall of ideas and ideologies to which advanced education provides access. By arguing that theological ethics is an activity by nature "political," the author endeavors to show us that to do Christian ethics is to be habituated into ways of talking and seeing that put us on a path toward the good. The author thus affirms the claim that theological ethics is a life-changing practice. But why is it so? This book endeavors to display a philosophical basis for this claim, by articulating the political character of practical reason. Through rigorous conversation with G. E. M. Anscombe, Charles Taylor, Stanley Hauerwas, Alasdair MacIntyre, and Jeffrey Stout, Ryan provides an account of practical reasoning that enables us to rightly conceive theological ethics as a discipline that ought to change our lives.

Pauline Politics

Pauline Politics
Author: Daniel Oudshoorn
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2020-03-10
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1532675216

The Pauline Epistles have been claimed as a useful ally by parties across the political spectrum. Neoconservatives claim that Paul and his coworkers were law-abiding, authority-honoring, devoutly religious people oriented around their respect for hard work, private property, and family values. Liberals claim that the Pauline faction was devoted to the celebration of diversity, internally transcending social markers of status, and the embrace of peace. Radicals claim that Paul was a leader within an anti-imperial revolutionary movement sweeping across the eastern portion of the Roman Empire. However, it is rare for these (and still other!) parties to engage in dialogue with each other because each party tends to operate with presuppositions that make open engagement difficult. Pauline Politics examines the main positions taken in relation to Paul and politics and then engages in a thorough examination of the underlying arguments used to argue that this-or-that position is more or less plausible. Underlying arguments tend to relate to two things: first, positions on the socioeconomic status of Paul, his coworkers, and other early Jesus loyalists; and second, positions on Pauline eschatology. This volume will comprehensively explore these matters.

Paul and the Greco-Roman Philosophical Tradition

Paul and the Greco-Roman Philosophical Tradition
Author: Joseph R. Dodson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2017-10-19
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567657922

Paul and the Greco-Roman Philosophical Tradition provides a fresh examination of the relationship of Greco-Roman philosophy to Pauline Christianity. It offers an in-depth look at different approaches employed by scholars who draw upon philosophical settings in the ancient world to inform their understanding of Paul. The volume houses an international team of scholars from a range of diverse traditions and backgrounds, which opens up a platform for multiple voices from various corridors. Consequently, some of the chapters seek to establish new potential resonances with Paul and the Greco-Roman philosophical tradition, but others question such connections. While a number of them propose radically new relationships between Paul and GrecoRoman philosophy, a few seek to tweak or modulate current discussions. There are arguments in the volume which are more technical and exegetical, and others that remain more synthetic and theological. This diversity, however, is accentuated by a goal shared by each author – to further our understanding of Paul's relationship to and appropriation of Greco-Roman philosophical traditions in his literary and missionary efforts.

Paul in the Grip of the Philosophers

Paul in the Grip of the Philosophers
Author: Peter Frick
Publisher: Fortress Press
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2013-11-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0800699122

One of the remarkable developments in the contemporary study of Paul is the dramatic interest in his thought amongst European philosophers. This collection of leading scholars makes accessible a discussion often elusive to those not already conversant in the categories of European philosophy. Each scholar addresss systematically what major philosophers have made of Pauland why it matters.

Literature and Religious Experience

Literature and Religious Experience
Author: Matthew J. Smith
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2022-01-13
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1350193933

This book challenges the status quo of studies in literature and religion by returning to “experience” as a bridge between theory and practice. Essays focus on keywords of religious experience and demonstrate their applications in drama, fiction, and poetry. Each chapter explores the broad significance of its keyword as a category of psychological and social behavior and tracks its unique articulation by individual authors, including Conrad, Beecher Stowe and Melville. Together, the chapters construct a critical foundation for studying literature not only from the perspectives of theology and historicism but from the ways that literary experience reflects, reinforces, and sometimes challenges religious experience.

The End of Apologetics

The End of Apologetics
Author: Myron Bradley Penner
Publisher: Baker Books
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2013-07-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 144125109X

The modern apologetic enterprise, according to Myron Penner, is no longer valid. It tends toward an unbiblical and unchristian form of Christian witness and does not have the ability to attest truthfully to Christ in our postmodern context. In fact, Christians need an entirely new way of conceiving the apologetic task. This provocative text critiques modern apologetic efforts and offers a concept of faithful Christian witness that is characterized by love and grounded in God's revelation. Penner seeks to reorient the discussion of Christian belief, change a well-entrenched vocabulary that no longer works, and contextualize the enterprise of apologetics for a postmodern generation.

A Theology of the Drug War

A Theology of the Drug War
Author: William A. Walker III
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 187
Release: 2019-12-05
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1978706499

This book is a political and theological reflection on the violence and injustice that has taken place in Mexico and Central America since 2006 as a result of the drug war. In order to understand and respond to this conflict in the age of globalization, William A. Walker III combines the work of philosopher Enrique Dussel and theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar to develop a theology of the drug war that transcends both a Eurocentric conception of the world and a merely political account of salvation. Walker also highlights examples of Christian and church-based approaches to practicing neighborliness and resistance to drug trade-related violence, challenging both Christians and non-Christians to participate in the creation of a more just and merciful society.

Currents in the Interpretation of Paul

Currents in the Interpretation of Paul
Author: Neil Elliott
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2024-09-05
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 166675272X

The apostle Paul has long been championed, or criticized, as a Christian thinker, as a brilliant theological genius, or an enthusiastic convert who spun arguments to justify his new allegiances. In these essays, Neil Elliott engages some of the most provocative currents in contemporary scholarship, including Paul and the nature of violence; the presumptions of religious, cultural, or national innocence in particular interpretations of the apostle; the recent enthusiasm for Paul in some streams of Marxist thought; competing construals of economic realities in Paul's day (and our own); and questions surrounding Paul's legacy today.

The Unrelenting God

The Unrelenting God
Author: David J. Downs
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2013-11-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0802867677

Is God still, as it has been argued, the "neglected factor" in New Testament theology? How does the Bible speak imaginatively and concretely about who God is and what God's activity on behalf of the world looks like? In The Unrelenting God sixteen accomplished scholars in the fields of biblical and theological studies explore ways in which Scripture speaks about God's character and God's activity in the world. As honoree Beverly Roberts Gaventa has done throughout her career, the contributors address important and nuanced theological themes such as God's dramatic invasion of the world in the gospel of Jesus Christ, God's ultimate triumph over the powers of sin and death, and humanity's ongoing participation with God in Christ. Scholars, students, and church leaders will appreciate this volume's careful theological interpretation of whole scriptural books and individual passages -- and its ability to model instructively how that interpretation is best done. Contributors: Shane Berg Martinus C. de Boer Alexandra R. Brown William Sanger Campbell David J. Downs Susan Grove Eastman Joel B. Green Douglas Harink Richard B. Hays L. Ann Jervis Jacqueline E. Lapsley J. Louis Martyn John B. F. Miller Matthew L. Skinner Katherine Sonderegger Francis Watson Michael Welker