Scientific Study from the year 2007 in the subject Philosophy - Miscellaneous, grade: "-", 110 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: An introductory chapter loads the scales in favour of an idealist approach in quasi-Quinean sense, in that being is called in question, as it is throughout the book. After a chapter revising the best expositions of faith as a possibly rational attitude the Christian discovery or intuition of intra-divine events or processes, held compatible with divine infinity and immutability, is treated under the rubric of a Trinitarian philosophy. This leads to analysis of notions of being (identity in difference) and, above all, of creation, viewing this as freed from the historic dualism which has contradicted the necessary infinity of the first principle. Creation is not thereby denied but seen as truly a constituent of the divine life. The picture is thus monistic, which is to say scientific as presenting a holistic system or way of seeing things absolutely or beyond appearance merely. The consequences for human metaphysical and moral nature are rigorously drawn, freed from all anthropomorphisms so as better to illuminate the insights of religion and philosophy. The relevance for contemporary movements from palaeontology to Church ecumenism is brought out, while a concluding epilogue attempts to shed light on the vexed debate on Europe in relation to the Christian inheritance. Other concluding chapters treat of both sacramental religion and of dialectic as the method of reason, whether in theology or in the world. For the world without the reason is not an object of thought, any more than you can wash the fur without wetting it, in G. Frege's words. ...]

Scientific Study from the year 2007 in the subject Philosophy - Miscellaneous, grade: "-", , language: English, abstract: An introductory chapter loads the scales in favour of an idealist approach in quasi-Quinean sense, in that being is called in question, as it is throughout the book. After a chapter revising the best expositions of faith as a possibly rational attitude the Christian discovery or intuition of intra-divine events or processes, held compatible with divine infinity and immutability, is treated under the rubric of a Trinitarian philosophy. This leads to analysis of notions of being (identity in difference) and, above all, of creation, viewing this as freed from the historic dualism which has contradicted the necessary infinity of the first principle. Creation is not thereby denied but seen as truly a constituent of the divine life. The picture is thus monistic, which is to say scientific as presenting a holistic system or way of seeing things absolutely or beyond appearance merely. The consequences for human metaphysical and moral nature are rigorously drawn, freed from all anthropomorphisms so as better to illuminate the insights of religion and philosophy. The relevance for contemporary movements from palaeontology to Church ecumenism is brought out, while a concluding epilogue attempts to shed light on the vexed debate on Europe in relation to the Christian inheritance. Other concluding chapters treat of both sacramental religion and of dialectic as the method of reason, whether in theology or in the world. For the world without the reason is not an object of thought, any more than you can wash the fur without wetting it, in G. Frege’s words. [...]

Does rationality, the intellectual bedrock of all science, apply to the study of religion? Religion, arguably the most subjective area of human behaviour, has particular challenges associated with its study. Attracting crowd-healers, conjurers, the pious and the prophetic alongside comparativists and sceptics, it excites opinions and generalizations whilst seldom explicitly staking out the territory for the discussions in which it partakes. Increasingly, scholars argue that religious study needs to define and critique its own field, and to distinguish itself from theology and other non-objective disciplines. Yet how can rational techniques be applied to beliefs and states of mind regarded by some as beyond the scope of human reason? Can these be made empirically testable, or comparable and replicable within academic communities? Can science explicate religion without reducing it to mere superstition, or redefine its truth in some empirical but meaningful way? Featuring contributions from leading international experts including Donald Wiebe, Roger Trigg and Michael Pye, Rationality and the Study of Religion gets under the surface of the religious studies discipline to expose the ideologies beneath. Reopening debate in a neglected yet philosophically significant field, it questions the role of rationality in religious anthropology, natural history and anti-scientific theologies, with implications not only for supposedly objective disciplines but for our deepest attitudes to personal experience. 'Interesting and important. Religion has long been associated with irrationality, both by its defenders and its critics, and the topic of rationality has been unjustly neglected The book certainly deserves to be widely circulated.' Greg Alles, Western Maryland College

Throughout the ages one of the central topics in philosophy of religion has been the rationality of theistic belief. Philosophers and theologians have debated whether it is rational to believe certain propositions about God's existence and nature. This book proposes that parties on both sides of this debate might shift their attention in a different direction, by focusing on the question of whether it is rational to be a religious theist. Explaining that having theistic beliefs is primarily a cognitive affair but being a religious theist involves a whole way of life that includes one's beliefs, Golding argues that it can be pragmatically rational to be a religious theist even if the evidence for God's existence is minimal. The argument is applied to the case of Judaism, articulating what is involved in religious Judaism and arguing that it is rationally defensible to be a religious Jew. The book concludes with a discussion of whether a similar argument might be constructed for other versions of religious theism such as Christianity or Islam, and for non-theistic religions such as Taoism or Buddhism. Engaging in a discussion of classic and contemporary writings on the rationality of religious commitment, this book provides fresh insights to scholars of philosophy of religion, theology and Jewish studies.

Religious belief, once in the domain of the humanities, has found a new home in the sciences. Promising new developments in the study of religion by cognitive scientists and evolutionary theorists put forward empirical hypotheses regarding the origin, spread, and character of religious beliefs. Different theories deal with different aspects of human religiosity – some focus on religious beliefs, while others focus on religious actions, and still others on the origin of religious ideas. While these theories might share a similar focus, there is plenty of disagreement in the explanations they offer. This volume examines the diversity of new scientific theories of religion, by outlining the logical and causal relationships between these enterprises. Are they truly in competition, as their proponents sometimes suggest, or are they complementary and mutually illuminating accounts of religious belief and practice? Cognitive science has gained much from an interdisciplinary focus on mental function, and this volume explores the benefits that can be gained from a similar approach to the scientific study of religion.

This ground-breaking volume on political Islam takes the question of Islam and secularism in an entirely different direction. It shows how leading Islamists use Islamic legal theory to liberate the political sphere from the narrow exegetical worldviews of classical jurists and modern fundamentalists. Exploring the work of a vanguard of Islamists, the book brilliantly parses out the broadlines of these Islamists’ liberal theory and its underpinning legal grounds. This theory promises much. Beyond resolving the problem of political legitimacy in Muslim majority countries, it opens immense potential for reasonable ‘overlapping consensuses’ between traditional worldviews and modern secular perspectives. Most strikingly, this resolution rests not on a break with the Islamic legal heritage but on rediscovering and refining the most profound aspects of it. The secret of this liberal theory lies in the broad application of the medieval concept of maqasid, the Lawgiver’s aims. This approach shifts the focus from textual analysis emphasizing what God said to a systematic rational exploration of what He intended.

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