The book proposes the hypothesis that six generic ways of being religious may be found in any large-scale religious tradition such as Christianity or Buddhism or Islam or Hinduism: sacred rite, right action, devotion, shamanic mediation, mystical quest, and reasoned inquiry. These are recurrent ways in which, socially and individually, devout members of these traditions take up and appropriate their stories and symbols in order to draw near to, and come into right relationship with, what the traditions attest to be the ultimate reality.

In a time where religion intellectualism has started to wane and the mystical philosophies of emotion have started to take over the church, this work is vitally important. Even in his day, Edwards dealt with people that were putting too much emphasis on either Intellectualism or Affection and not seeing the importance of both of them together. This volume helps to bridge the gap and gives us an alternative to worrying about bad emotions in our church to allowing a balanced experience of emotion in our churches. Now in larder print!

An introductory textbook on Christian approaches to other world faiths.

The Bible throughout the Ages examines several crucial issues related to the Bible: its status as God's truth and revelation, the history of reading and interpreting Scripture, and its ongoing relevance in the world today. This edited volume is the result of collaboration between English- and French-speaking scholars, who collectively address a range of issues regarding Scripture, including literal vs. metaphorical interpretations, how theologians like Augustine, Aquinas, and Calvin read the Bible, and how Scripture continues to shape the Christian faith today.

Al-Azhar University is widely regarded as the most prestigious educational institution in Sunni Islam. In this capacity, it plays an important role in Egyptian society, also touching on the relationship between Muslims and Christians. The present study examines the writings of three contemporary Al-Azhar scholars in an effort to identify the operative understanding of comparative religions (namely Islam and Christianity) in each case. The study identifies various paradigms and provides impulses for a methodological reorientation in an effort to promote mutual understanding.

"Swami Vivekananda, the nineteenth-century Hindu monk who introduced Vedåanta to the West, is undoubtedly one of modern India's most influential philosophers. Unfortunately, his philosophy has too often been interpreted through reductive hermeneutic lenses. Typically, scholars have viewed him either as a modern-day exponent of âSaçnkara's Advaita Vedåanta or as a "Neo-Vedåantin" influenced more by Western ideas than indigenous Indian traditions. In Swami Vivekananda's Vedåantic Cosmopolitanism, Swami Medhananda rejects both of these prevailing approaches to offer a new interpretation of Vivekananda's philosophy, highlighting its originality, contemporary relevance, and cross-cultural significance. Vivekananda, the book argues, is best understood as a cosmopolitan Vedåantin who developed novel philosophical positions through creative dialectical engagement with both Indian and Western thinkers. Inspired by his guru Sri Ramakrishna, Vivekananda reconceived Advaita Vedåanta as a nonsectarian, life-affirming philosophy that provides an ontological basis for religious cosmopolitanism and a spiritual ethics of social service. He defended the scientific credentials of religion while criticizing the climate of scientism beginning to develop in the late nineteenth century. He was also one of the first philosophers to defend the evidential value of supersensuous perception on the basis of general epistemic principles. Finally, he adopted innovative cosmopolitan approaches to long-standing philosophical problems. Bringing him into dialogue with a galaxy of contemporary philosophers, Medhananda demonstrates the sophistication and enduring value of Vivekananda's views on the limits of reason, the dynamics of religious faith, and the hard problem of consciousness"--