"Reflections of a Born-Again Pagan Radical evokes the powerful revolutionary spirit of the '60's." -Kedron Bryson, Baytree Press Jenny and Noces meet as students at the University of Southern California. They fall in love during a psychedelic pilgrimage to Mexico. Inspired by the profound socio-political upheaval of the 1960's, they shed their conservative backgrounds and plunge into the growing transnational counterculture, joining forces in rejecting the American system and building one of their own. Roving throughout North America, Western Europe, Mexico, Morocco, Jamaica and Nicaragua, the gutsy pair create an enterprise trading in psychedelics and enlightening herbs, while establishing their own radical political network. Opening themselves to totally new dimensions of mystical awareness, Jenny and Noces celebrate the magic, ecstasy and wonder of life. Exercising the social responsibility that accompanies enlightenment, they find themselves on the frontlines, battling riot police during the 1968 Democrat Convention in Chicago and the May Day 1971 take-over of the Washington Monument, and supporting the national student strike protesting Nixon's Cambodia invasion; in Mexico City, they're attacked by paramilitaries in a squatter settlement; finally, in Nicaragua, they end up joining armed revolutionaries in an assault on a military command center. While presenting a fascinating era in vivid detail, Reflections of a Born-Again Pagan Radical delivers urgent, timeless truths.

In this passionate and searching book, Anthony Kronman offers a third way—beyond atheism and religion—to the God of the modern world We live in an age of disenchantment. The number of self-professed “atheists” continues to grow. Yet many still feel an intense spiritual longing for a connection to what Aristotle called the “eternal and divine.” For those who do, but demand a God that is compatible with their modern ideals, a new theology is required. This is what Anthony Kronman offers here, in a book that leads its readers away from the inscrutable Creator of the Abrahamic religions toward a God whose inexhaustible and everlasting presence is that of the world itself. Kronman defends an ancient conception of God, deepened and transformed by Christian belief—the born-again paganism on which modern science, art, and politics all vitally depend. Brilliantly surveying centuries of Western thought—from Plato to Augustine, Aquinas, and Kant, from Spinoza to Nietzsche, Darwin, and Freud—Kronman recovers and reclaims the God we need today.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Prologue -- Introduction -- Part One: GRATITUDE -- 1 The Good of Gratitude: Dependence, Acceptance and Being at Home in the World -- 2 A World of Rights: The Expulsion of Love and Gratitude from Public Life -- 3 "Endless Gratitude So Burdensome": Christian Theology and Western Civilization -- Part Two: PRIDE -- 4 Greatness of Soul: Aristotle's Philosophy of Pride -- 5 Givers and Takers: The Good of Self-Sufficiency -- 6 The Eternal and Divine: What Every thing Desires

In this collection of essays, renowned philosopher Robert Sokolowski illustrates how Christian faith is not an alternative to reason, but rather an enhancement of it.

Levinas and the Greek Heritage shows that throughout his career, Emmanuel Levinas always admired and recognized his profound debt to Plato and to the philosophical tradition he initiated, which have been largely transmitted to us by the Neoplatonists, most notably Plotinus and Proclus. How can we read Otherwise than Being or Beyond Essence in any other way than as some sort of Neoplatonic programme, prolonging Plato's Good "beyond being" of the republic VI, 509b, in the direction of the "other man," the one which in his "nudity" and "fragility," opens for us the horizon of a new humanism? There are many ways by which one can attempt to go over and above Being, not only a Greek way (primordially metaphysical), but also a Biblical way (mainly ethical). One of the interests of Levinas' philosophy is to show us the hidden community - and perhaps unavoidable interdependency - of these two approaches. One Hundred Years of Neoplatonism in France shows that during the Twentieth century a retrieval of Neoplatonism is a powerful hidden feature of French philosophy and theology, of spiritual and institutional life. Beginning with Henri Bergson, it passes by way of figures like Maurice Blondel, A.J. Festugire, Henri de Lubac, Jean Trouillard, Henry Dumry, and culminates with Michel Henry, Pierre Hadot, and Jean-Luc Marion. The book examines the particular character Neoplatonism takes in this retrieval, and traces connections between leading figures within the French and Anglophone worlds.

Celebrated religious and social historian Rodney Starktraces the extraordinary rise of Christianity through its most pivotal andcontroversial moments to offer fresh perspective on the history of the world’slargest religion. In The Triumph of Christianity, the author of God’sBattalions and The Rise of Christianity gathers and refines decadesof powerful research and discovery into one concentrated, concise, and highlyreadable volume that explores Christianity’s most crucial episodes. The uniqueformat of Triumph of Christianity allows Stark to avoid densechronologies and difficult back stories, bringing readers right to the heart ofChristian history’s most vital controversies and enduring lessons.

This book offers an engrossing portrayal of the early years of the Christian movement from the perspective of the Romans.

"An analysis of how religious bias shaped U.S. federal Indian law."--

Rabbi or Messiah? Prophet or the Son of God? People have debated the identity of Jesus of Nazareth since the first century. But what if there was no Jesus? What if there was no Mary or Joseph, no twelve apostles? What if the story of Jesus was no more than a myth to convey spiritual truth? These claims have been around for hundreds of years and have become more prominent with well-known religion columnist Tom Harpur's recent book, The Pagan Christ. Harpur claims that Jesus was not a historical figure, but was one version of an ancient myth that can be traced from ancient Egyptian religion to the Roman mystery cults. Stanley Porter and Stephen Bedard tackle this radical claim by looking at the roots of the "pagan Christ idea," examining the supposed pagan parallels and presenting the evidence for the historical Jesus. The authors demonstrate that the suggestion of pagan origins for the Gospel story is not based on historical or textual evidence, but rather on a desire to create a universalistic spirituality revolving around a "Cosmic Christ" within each person. A fair examination of both the mythological and biblical texts reveal that the traditional understanding of an actual historical figure known as Jesus of Nazareth appearing two thousand years ago is indeed the only logical conclusion. Stanley E. Porter is President and Dean, and Professor of New Testament at McMaster Divinity College, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Porter has M.A. degrees from Claremont Graduate School and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and the Ph.D. from the University of Sheffield. He has written widely on issues of concern in study of the New Testament, such as Jesus, Paul, the book of Acts, and John. He has a passion for education in the church, and preaches and teaches regularly. Stephen J. Bedard is the pastor of Woodford Baptist Church and First Baptist Church, Meaford, Ontario, Canada. He holds the M.Div. and M.Th. degrees from McMaster Divinity College, and is actively engaged in further graduate study. Bedard is an advocate of informed preaching and teaching, and is devoted to the ministry of the local church.