Why care for the weak and vulnerable if survival is all that matters? Why are people so concerned with fashions and the labels on clothes? Isn’t religion just a matter of being conditioned by your parents? How do we explain the Big Bang? What is love?Philosopher and theologian Dr Peter Vardy has collected 54 of the best questions about life asked by his young daughters Petra and Thora, attempted to answer them himself and gathered additional answers from leading figures in a variet...

An excellent overview of Christianity, suitable for students (and teachers!) embarking on the new GCSE and ‘A’-Level Religious Studies specifications.Written in the same clear and engaging style as the bestselling Puzzle of Ethics and Puzzle of God, this book covers key content common to all the new specifications – including:Jesus: His incarnation, life, ethical teaching, crucifixion and resurrection, saving importance for Christians and relationship with God;

An Introduction to Kierkegaard is an accessible introduction to one of the most influential philosophers of the nineteenth century. Peter Vardy is an internationally known scholar with several bestselling titles.Søren 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 ...

First Published in 2015. The first half of this book concludes that, if human reason is master, there seems to be no way of equating a good and powerful God with evil in the world. In the second half, searching for a solution, the author takes as his starting point St Augustine's credo, I believe in order that I may understand. He builds up a series of statements which express the central Christian convictions in relation to the problem of evil, a viewpoint which the reader may accept or n...

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....

First Published in 1994. Is there such a thing as right and wrong? Are some codes of behaviour more justified than others? Is it foolish to believe in moral principles? Is 'virtue' just a quaint Victorian term and does anyone care in any case? The Puzzle of Ethics tackles these formidable questions and many more in a clear and easy to understand manner without every becoming superficial. Throughout the approaches of major philosophers are explained and specific issues are addressed, includ...

The Puzzle of God takes a distinctive approach to the complex issues surrounding what it means to claim that God exists. It examines the different ideas of God in common use today, and applies these to the central areas of belief, such as eternal life, prayer, miracles, and talk of God's love, omnipotence and omniscience.

First Published in 2015. The gospels tell a story. There are many types of story ranging from fiction through biographies to attempts at historical accounts. Even so-called 'true' stories will be affected by the perception of the writer. It is impossible to present any book without taking the viewpoint of the author into account - which is one reason why this book will be devoting considerable time to understanding the purpose and intention of the individual gospel writers. Matthew, Mark, ...

An excellent overview of Christianity, suitable for students (and teachers!) embarking on the new GCSE and ‘A’-Level Religious Studies specifications.Written in the same clear and engaging style as the bestselling Puzzle of Ethics and Puzzle of God, this book covers key content common to all the new specifications – including:Jesus: His incarnation, life, ethical teaching, crucifixion and resurrection, saving importance for Christians and relationship with God;

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...

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...

To some, Soren Kierkegaard is primarily a philosopher, to others a Christian thinker or theologian. He was also a perceptive psychologist and incisive cultural critic. But above all, Kierkegaard was a writer. Clare Carlisles tackles eight key questions surrounding Kierkegaards multi-faceted thinking, exploring above all his view of the world and how we live in it.The How to Believe series of ebooks explores the teachings, philosophies and beliefs of major thinkers and religious texts. In a...