From the 17th century's self-styled Enlightenment to the shell shock of the 20th century's Great War, the conventions and attitudes known as Modernity held significant sway over the Western mind. Long before the post-war disillusionment that sparked Postmodernism, Modernity made (and frequently fulfilled) tremendous promises, birthing the hope of a man-made utopia. It was an age of reason and progress marked by technological, political, and artistic achievements that bettered the lot of hu...

A perpetual bestseller, this third edition explores environmental quality from the perspective of soil science. The coverage ranges from the theoretical to the practical with an abundance of examples such as an exploration of allowable pesticide concentrations in drinking water and an inquiry into soil contamination from the trace elements in organic by-products. It also explores the use of soil carbon sequestration as a remedy for global climate change and the effects of acid precipitatio...

DostoevskySober Hope: Finding Faith in the Bleak MidwinterAs winter descends to end the year 2023, it is a time for contemplation: a time to revel in the joys and find balm for the woes of the past year, a time to find the courage to hold on, and the hope to thrive in the new year. Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821 - 1881) faced his own bleak (and Russian!) winters, from childhood play amongst the impoverished at his father's medical clinic to a last...

Throughout history there have been great and articulate defenders of the faith, from Augustine and Aquinas to Jonathan Edwards, G. K. Chesterton, Francis Schaeffer, and C. S. Lewis. But with new challenges comes the need for a fresh apologetic that specifically addresses the arguments levied against faith in our time of scientific atheism and skepticism.In the spirit of C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity, Alister McGrath's Mere Apologetics seeks to equip readers to e...

The Reason for God: this book has been written for believers and non-believers, sceptics and churchgoers, and charts a brilliantly considered and impassioned path to Christianity - a Mere Christianity for the twenty-first century.Making Sense of God: a prequel to Keller's A Reason for God: a thoughtful look at the role faith and religion can play in modern lives.The Prodigal God: focused on Jesus' best-known parable - the prodigal son - as a paradigm for t...

We live in an age of skepticism. Our society places such faith in empirical reason, historical progress, and heartfelt emotion that it’s easy to wonder: Why should anyone believe in Christianity? What role can faith and religion play in our modern lives?In this thoughtful and inspiring new book, pastor and New York Times bestselling author Timothy Keller invites skeptics to consider that Christianity is more relevant now than ever. As human beings, we cann...

*With a foreword from Tim Keller*A bold vision for Christians who want to engage the world in a way that is biblically faithful and culturally sensitive.In Biblical Critical Theory, Christopher Watkin shows how the Bible and its unfolding story help us make sense of modern life and culture.Critical theories exist to critique what we think we know about reality and the social, political, and cultural structures in which we l...

Is it really reasonable to believe in Christianity?Challenging the assumption that religion is irrelevant in a world where empirical proof is the basis of our reasonings, Timothy Keller, author of New York Times bestseller The Reason for God reverses the question:Isn't secular thinking just another set of beliefs?Keller puts secularism under the intellectual scrutiny that is usually applied to religion. With ...

Writing with his usual grace and fluency, Jonathan Sacks moves beyond the tired arguments of militant atheists such as Dawkins and Hitchens, to explore how religion has always played a valuable part in human culture and far from being dismissed as redundant, must be allowed to temper and develop scientific understanding in order for us to be fully human. Ranging around the world to draw comparisons from different cultures, and delving deep into the history of language and of western civili...

This Very Short Introduction provides both the believer and non-believer with a balanced survey of the central questions of theology. David Ford's approach draws us in to considering the principles underlying religious belief, including the centrality of salvation to most major religions, the concept of God in ancient, modern, and postmodern contexts, the challenge posed to theology by prayer and worship, and the issue of sin and evil. He also probes the nature of experience, know...

The philosophies of French thinkers Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault form the basis for postmodern thought and are seemingly at odds with the Christian faith. However, James K. A. Smith claims that their ideas have been misinterpreted and actually have a deep affinity with central Christian claims.Each chapter opens with an illustration from a recent movie and concludes with a case study considering recent developments in the church that have attempted to respond to the postmodern co...

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...