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Establishing a link between phenomenology and hermeneutics as seen by philosophers (notably Heidegger and Husserl) and as applied by students of religion (notably Eliade and van der Leeuw) is the pioneering aim of this book. No existing book ties together the cross-disciplinary strands in a way that is useful for religious studies. A phenomenological and therefore hermeneutical approach to religion "prides itself on being aware of its own presuppositions and those of others that are brought to...

The Nay Science offers a new perspective on the problem of scientific method in the human sciences. Taking German Indological scholarship on the Mahabharata and the Bhagavadgita as their example, Adluri and Bagchee develop a critique of the modern valorization of method over truth in the humanities. The authors show how, from its origins in eighteenth-century Neo-Protestantism onwards, the critical method was used as a way of making theological claims against rival philosophical and/or religious...

Malls, stadiums, and universities are actually liturgical structures that influence and shape our thoughts and affections. Humans--as Augustine noted--are "desiring agents," full of longings and passions; in brief, we are what we love. James K. A. Smith focuses on the themes of liturgy and desire in Desiring the Kingdom, the first book in what will be a three-volume set on the theology of culture. He redirects our yearnings to focus on the greatest good: God. Ultimately, Smith seeks to re-visio...

At the turn of the century an intimate alliance of philosophers, poets and theologians discovered the incarnation of their aspirations for a spiritually transformed world in the symbol of Sophia, the Divine Wisdom of God. Under her various aliases as the Divine Feminine, the Wisdom Clothed in the Sun and the Beautiful Lady, this feminine archetype usurped the traditional role of Christ as the mediator between heaven and earth. She was, however, primarily the inspiration of the Russian philosophe...

This book is a first attempt to examine the thought of key contemporary Jewish thinkers on the meaning of tradition in the context of two models. The classic model assumes that tradition reflects lack of dynamism and reflectiveness, and the present's unqualified submission to the past. This view, however, is an image that the modernist ethos has ascribed to the tradition so as to remove it from modern existence. In the alternative model, a living tradition emerges as open and dynamic, developing...

Ecrasez l'infame! Voltaire's rallying cry against fanaticism resonates with new force today. Nothing suggests the complex legacy of the Enlightenment more than the struggle of superstition, prejudice, and intolerance advocated by most of the Enlightenment philosophers, regardless of their ideological differences. The aim of this book is to undertake a reconsideration of the controversies surrounding the questions of religion, toleration, and fanaticism in the eighteenth century through an examin...

In 1982 Olaf Pedersen gave a series of lectures at the University of Aarhus, Denmark, and in 1988 at Cambridge University. In the course of those lectures he developed The Two Books: Historical Notes on Some Interactions between Natural Science and Theology. After Pedersen's death in 1997, the work was prepared for publication, making available in English as complete and accurate a version as possible of Pedersen's monumental work. There is a lingering impression that the field of natural scienc...

Jewish medieval philosophy has formed the subject of much research over the past thirty years since the appearance of Gutmann's Philosophies of Judaism, resulting in greater understanding and a new need for summation. This important work, now available in paperback, aims to supply that need, and devotes ample discussion to the major figures of the period like Saadiah Gaon, Maimonides, Abraham Ibn Ezra and Judah Halevi. It also gives much attention to the discussion and presentation of texts by l...

Augustine of Hippo is a giant in the history of Christian thought, commended by St Jerome for having virtually 're-founded the old faith'. He was a philosopher, theologian, preacher, interpreter of scripture, monk and bishop. Augustine dominated medieval theology, strongly influenced the debates of the Reformation and continues to shape Christian thought today. This book is intended for those who want a comprehensive introduction to Augustine's life and thought, and provides a clear and round...

Robert McKim's goal in On Religious Diversity is to distinguish and examine a number of possible responses to the knowledge of other religious traditions that are available to all of us today. He argues that the issues raised will be very pressing throughout the century we have just begun. There is no escaping the fact that the presence of competing traditions now confronts each of the traditions in a new and forceful way. More than ever there is a widespread if inchoate recognition of genuine r...

Not many cardinals get to be declared saints, and even rarer is one who is known for his controversial ideas and interpretation of doctrinal faith both within and outside the church. John Henry Newman (1801-1890), however, beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in September 2010, was no ordinary churchman. Raised an Anglican and a leading member of the Oxford Movement in his younger days, he converted to Catholicism and, through prolific writing and polemics, established an intellectual and spiritual in...

This book is a study of religious practices of listening in the Boston area. Through ethnographic study of a variety of religious communities, with an extensive focus on Quaker listening, it argues that religious practice shapes our habits of listening by creating a plurality of regimes of listening across Boston's landscape. These practices, moreover, cultivate specific dispositions, as well as distinct patterns of religious and democratic virtues. Through these dispositions and virtues, religi...