How do various concepts of God impact the moral life? Is God ultimately required for goodness? In this edited collection, an international panel of contemporary philosophers and theologians offer new avenues of exploration from a theist perspective for these important questions.The book features several approaches to address these questions. Common themes include philosophical and theological conceptions of God with reference to human morality, particular Trinitarian accounts of Go...

This book provides a comprehensive theological framework for assessing significance of eating, employing a Trinitarian theological lens to evaluate food production and consumption practices as they are being worked out in today's industrial food systems. Norman Wirzba combines the tools of ecological, agrarian, cultural, biblical and theological analyses to draw a picture of eating that cares for creatures and that honors God. Unlike books that focus on vegetarianism or food distribution a...

At a time when economics, banking and commerce are never out of the headlines, Theonomics asks if theology is capable of informing, shaping and penetrating all aspects of life, and especially economic life. Theonomics argues for the recovery of the classic virtues of prudence, temperance, fortitude, justice and humility as animators of a lively and Godly economy.Six key principles are offered to help those interested in integrating Christian ideas into the economic sphere: communit...

What are religions? Why is it important to understand them? One answer is that religions and religious believers are extremely bad news: they are deeply involved in conflicts around the globe; they harm people of whom they disapprove; and they often seem irrational. Another answer claims that they are in fact extremely good news: religious beliefs and practices are universal and so fundamental in human nature that they have led us to great discoveries in our explorations of the cosmos and ...

The Summa Theologiae is Thomas Aquinas' undisputed masterwork, and it includes his thoughts on the elemental forces in human life. Feelings such as love, hatred, pleasure, pain, hope and despair were described by Aquinas as 'passions', representing the different ways in which happiness could be affected. But what causes the passions? What impact do they have on the person who suffers them? Can they be shaped and reshaped in order to better promote human flourishing? The aim of this book is...

Reconciling belief in a good and all-powerful God with the obvious presence of suffering and evil in the world is one of the classic problems for Christian (and indeed Jewish) philosophy and theology. The Book of Job famously examines this problem from various angles, and rejects several inadequate explanations. Numerous philosophers and theologians have attempted to answer the question; Martin D’Arcy draws on this rich tradition, and tries to give an account that is both acceptable to an ...

In 1969, James Nelson confessed to murder, served a prison sentence, then applied to be ordained as a minster in the Scottish Church (The Kirk). The case split the church in two, and challenged the institution to consider its most basic functions, obligations and duties. Part of the problem was that James Nelson's crime was no ordinary crime. The bible has a lot to say about murder, but not about this particular variety of murder.Stuart Kelly uses the case of Nelson to write a comp...

Should we merely celebrate diversity in the sphere of religion? What of the social cohesion of a country? There is a constant tug between belief in religious truth and the need for respect for other religions. Religious Diversity: Philosophical and Political Dimensions examines how far a firm faith can allow for toleration of difference and respect the need for religious freedom. It elucidates the philosophical credentials of different approaches to truth in religion, ranging from a dogmat...

As ecological degradation continues to threaten permanent and dramatic changes for life on our planet, the question of how we can protect our imperiled Earth has become more pressing than ever before. In this book, Daniel Scheid draws on Catholic social thought to construct what he calls the "cosmic common good," a new norm for interreligious ecological ethics. This ethical vision sees humans as an intimate part of the greater whole of the cosmos, emphasizes the simultaneous instrumental a...

At a time when barbarous acts of terrorism are being committed globally and society ponders whether the perpetrators are legitimate religious adherents, Marcus Paul makes an unflinching and counter-cultural examination of some of the worst periods in the Church's history.Were the crusades entirely inexcusable religious wars? Was the Inquisition the bloody and sadistic "Black Legend" of popular imagination? How can we understand the goodness of God after two brutalising world wars?

Interest in political theology has surged in recent years, and this accessible volume provides a focused overview of the field. Many are asking serious questions about religious faith in secular societies, the origin and function of democratic polities, worldwide economic challenges, the shift of Christianity's center of gravity to the global south, and anxieties related to bold and even violent assertions of theologically determined political ideas. In fourteen original essays, authors ex...

Rabbinic tales of drought, disaster, and charismatic holy men illuminate critical questions about power, ethics, and ecology in Jewish late antiquity. Through a sustained reading of the Babylonian Talmud's tractate on fasts in response to drought, this book shows how Bavli Taʿanit challenges Deuteronomy's claim that virtue can assure abundance and that misfortune is an unambiguous sign of divine rebuke. Employing a new method for analyzing lengthy talmudic narratives, Julia Watts Belser tr...