This is a book about a remarkable man - yet in an important sense it is not about this man at all.Soren Kierkegaard died in Copenhagen, Denmark, at the age of forty-two in 1855. His writings had little influence in his lifetime and after his death, even with the translation of some of his works into German, he was barely known. Yet today, he is internationally accepted as one of the world's greatest thinkers and is often considered the father of existentialism....

Hermeneutics is the branch of knowledge that deals with interpretation, a behaviour that is intrinsic to our daily lives. As humans, we decipher the meaning of newspaper articles, books, legal matters, religious texts, political speeches, emails, and even dinner conversations every day . But how is knowledge mediated through these forms? What constitutes the process of interpretation? And how do we draw meaning from the world around us so that we might understand our position in it? In thi...

A brilliant dissection and reconstruction of the three major faith-based systems of belief in the world today, from one of the world's most articulate intellectuals, Slavoj Zizek, in conversation with Croatian philosopher Boris Gunjévic. In six chapters that describe Christianity, Islam, and Judaism in fresh ways using the tools of Hegelian and Lacanian analysis, God in Pain: Inversions of Apocalypse shows how each faith understands humanity and divinity—and how the differences be...

In his widely praised Warranted Christian Belief (Oxford, 2000) Alvin Plantinga discussed in great depth the question of the rationality, or sensibility, of Christian belief. In this book Plantinga presents the same ideas in a briefer, much more accessible fashion.Recognized worldwide as a leading Christian philosopher, Plantinga probes what exactly is meant by the claim that religious -- and specifically Christian -- belief is irrational and cannot sensibly be held. He arg...

A highly engaging essay that will draw students into a conversation about the vital relationship between philosophy and theology.In this clear, concise, and brilliantly engaging essay, renowned philosopher and theologian John D. Caputoaddresses the great and classical philosophical questions as they inextricably intersect with theology--past, present, and future. Recognized as one of the leading philosophers, Caputo is peerless in introducing and initiating stu...

Influential scholar Peter L. Berger reveals five signs that point to the supernatural and its place in a modern secular societyAcclaimed scholar and sociologist Peter L. Berger examines religion in twentieth-century Western society, exploring the social nature of knowledge and its effect on religious belief. Using five signs evident in ordinary life—order, play, hope, damnation, and humor—Berger calls for a rediscovery of the supernatural as a crucial, rich dimensi...

The work of René Girard is hugely influential in literature and cultural studies. But it is in understanding the relationship between religion and violence that his theory has created the greatest impact. Girard’s understanding of mimetic rivalry and conflict and of scapegoating are seen by many to be the key to a completely new understanding of Christianity.Girard’s name evokes curiosity and – often – strong feelings amongst devotees and sceptics. Discovering Girard is the first b...

Few can offer a more experienced view on religion than Ray Bradley. Having been raised as a 'winner of souls for Christ' in the 1940s, he spent the next 40 years as an atheist professor of philosophy and an outspoken critic /debater of religion.Revered for his work in logic and his meticulous approach to debate, God's Gravediggers is Bradley's coup de grâce to religion. A career's worth of work on a subject that could hardly be more important. Approaching the moral, logical and sci...

'What experience and history teaches us is that people and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it''What and how much I possess is a matter of indifference so far as rights are concerned''Education is the art of making man ethical'Without Hegel, modern thought is unthinkable - all those whose ideas have made the modern age have worked in his shadow.Hegel's...

A militant Marxist atheist and a “Radical Orthodox” Christian theologian square off on everything from the meaning of theology and Christ to the war machine of corporate mafia.“What matters is not so much that Žižek is endorsing a demythologized, disenchanted Christianity without transcendence, as that he is offering in the end (despite what he sometimes claims) a heterodox version of Christian belief.”—John Milbank“To put it even more bluntly, my claim is ...

This is the third volume in Alvin Plantinga's trilogy on the notion of warrant, which he defines as that which distinguishes knowledge from true belief. In this volume, Plantinga examines warrant's role in theistic belief, tackling the questions of whether it is rational, reasonable, justifiable, and warranted to accept Christian belief and whether there is something epistemically unacceptable in doing so. He contends that Christian beliefs are warranted to the extent that they are formed ...

In fifty brilliant short essays one of the UK's liveliest young writers on religion introduces the key themes, movements and thinkers in theology.