Download or read book Christian Faith for the Empirically Minded written by Charles E Garrison and published by WestBow Press. This book was released on 2017-04-24 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is being a Christian a matter of faith for which there is no empirical evidence? Or are there empirical evidences that support this faith? Christian Faith for the Empirically Minded explores several subject areas that are empirically supportive. From cosmology to history, these themes are explored. The ideas link a creators mind that is revealed in communications to establish Christianity as a unique cultural tradition. Intended for inquiring minds, this approach does not require scientific knowledge although it seeks to be grounded in scientific thought. Christian Faith for the Empirically Minded explores ideas from both contemporary and past thinkers.
Download or read book The Christian Frame of Mind written by Thomas F. Torrance and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2015-08-25 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Christian Frame of Mind: Reason, Order, and Openness in Theology and Natural Science is an exhilarating exploration by one of this century's premier theologians of the relationship between science and theology. This collection of essays, which focuses on themes central to Thomas F. Torrance's lifelong work of integrating Judea-Christian theology and natural science, illuminates the distinctive contribution of the Christian frame of mind to human life and thought particularly in the rise of modern science. Arguing to close the gap between theological and natural science erroneously opened by "the narrow-minded rationalism of the Enlightenment," Dr. Torrance builds upon the work of scientists such as James Clerk Maxwell, Albert Einstein, and Michael Polanyi in promoting dialogue between the two disciplines. The resultant conversation is a brilliant and stirring analysis of common ground in scientific and theological inquiry. Torrance discards a dualist separation for a unitary understanding of reality, in which the invisible guides the interpretation of the visible as scientist and theologian alike adopt self critical openness and the auditive mode of inquiry in response to the pressing questions of their task. Dr. Torrance urges this unitary understanding of the intelligibility of the universe as a shared goal of science and theology. His vision of a foundational convergence between them, where the "boundary points" of contingent reality find their reference in the transcendent, uncreated reality of the Word of God is breathtaking in beauty and scope. The introduction by Dr. W Jim Neidhardt, physics professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, provides a lucid summary of key themes in Torrance's lifelong integrative work.
Download or read book The Faith of a Physicist written by John C. Polkinghorne and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2014-07-14 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is it possible to think like a scientist and yet have the faith of a Christian? Although many Westerners might say no, there are also many critically minded individuals who entertain what John Polkinghorne calls a "wistful wariness" toward religion--they feel unable to accept religion on rational grounds yet cannot dismiss it completely. Polkinghorne, both a particle physicist and Anglican priest, here explores just what rational grounds there could be for Christian beliefs, maintaining that the quest for motivated understanding is a concern shared by scientists and religious thinkers alike. Anyone who assumes that religion is based on unquestioning certainties, or that it need not take into account empirical knowledge, will be challenged by Polkinghorne's bottom-up examination of Christian beliefs about events ranging from creation to the resurrection. The author organizes his inquiry around the Nicene Creed, an early statement that continues to summarize Christian beliefs. He applies to each of its tenets the question, "What is the evidence that makes you think this might be true?" The evidence Polkinghorne weighs includes the Hebrew and Christian scriptures--their historical contexts and the possible motivations for their having been written--scientific theories, and human self-consciousness as revealed in literary, philosophical, and psychological works. He begins with the words, "We believe," and presents understandings of the nature of humanity, showing, for example, that Cartesian theory, evolution, and natural selection do not tell the entire story of what humans are about, especially in light of many sources that attest to our spirituality. Moving through the Creed, Polkinghorne considers the concept of divinity and God as creator in discussions that cover the Theory of Everything, the Big Bang Theory, and the possibility of divine presence within reality so that God is not simply an outside observer. Chapters on Jesus analyze the different ways events are described in the Gospels and the way motivation for belief is conveyed--for example, how do these writings explain why a young man killed in public disgrace could inspire a following, when other major world religious leaders lived to become highly revered elders in their communities? "Faith seeking understanding" is, according to Polkinghorne, like the scientific quest. Both are journeys of intellectual discovery in which those who survey experience from an initially chosen point of view must be open to correction in the light of further experience. "Religion," he writes, "has long known that ultimately every human image of God proves to be an inadequate idol." The Faith of a Physicist, based on the prestigious 1993 Gifford Lectures, delivers a powerful message to scientists and theologians, theists and atheists alike. Originally published in 1994. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Download or read book The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind written by Mark A. Noll and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2022-03-15 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Christianity Today Book of the Year Award (1995) “The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind.” So begins this award-winning intellectual history and critique of the evangelical movement by one of evangelicalism’s most respected historians. Unsparing in his indictment, Mark Noll asks why the largest single group of religious Americans—who enjoy increasing wealth, status, and political influence—have contributed so little to rigorous intellectual scholarship. While nourishing believers in the simple truths of the gospel, why have so many evangelicals failed to sustain a serious intellectual life and abandoned the universities, the arts, and other realms of “high” culture? Over twenty-five years since its original publication, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind has turned out to be prescient and perennially relevant. In a new preface, Noll lays out his ongoing personal frustrations with this situation, and in a new afterword he assesses the state of the scandal—showing how white evangelicals’ embrace of Trumpism, their deepening distrust of science, and their frequent forays into conspiratorial thinking have coexisted with surprisingly robust scholarship from many with strong evangelical connections.
Download or read book Questions of Faith written by Peter Berger and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2015-11-04 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leading religious and cultural commentator, Peter Berger, explores how and what we can believe in modern times. Deals clearly with questions such as ‘Does God exist? What was so special about Jesus? How can one be Christian in a pluralistic society? Structured around key phrases from the Apostles’ Creed. Draws on the Christian theological tradition and the work of other relevant thinkers, such as Freud and Simone Weil. The author takes the position of an open-minded sceptic, exploring his own beliefs.
Download or read book Bible Made Impossible The written by Christian Smith and published by Brazos Press. This book was released on 2011-08 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A world-renowned sociologist argues that evangelical biblicism is impossible and produces unwanted pastoral consequences.
Download or read book A Manual for Creating Atheists written by Peter Boghossian and published by Pitchstone Publishing (US&CA). This book was released on 2014-07-01 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For thousands of years, the faithful have honed proselytizing strategies and talked people into believing the truth of one holy book or another. Indeed, the faithful often view converting others as an obligation of their faith—and are trained from an early age to spread their unique brand of religion. The result is a world broken in large part by unquestioned faith. As an urgently needed counter to this tried-and-true tradition of religious evangelism, A Manual for Creating Atheists offers the first-ever guide not for talking people into faith—but for talking them out of it. Peter Boghossian draws on the tools he has developed and used for more than 20 years as a philosopher and educator to teach how to engage the faithful in conversations that will help them value reason and rationality, cast doubt on their religious beliefs, mistrust their faith, abandon superstition and irrationality, and ultimately embrace reason.
Download or read book Faith Versus Fact written by Jerry A. Coyne and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-05-17 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A superbly argued book.” —Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion The New York Times bestselling author of Why Evolution is True explains why any attempt to make religion compatible with science is doomed to fail In this provocative book, evolutionary biologist Jerry A. Coyne lays out in clear, dispassionate detail why the toolkit of science, based on reason and empirical study, is reliable, while that of religion—including faith, dogma, and revelation—leads to incorrect, untestable, or conflicting conclusions. Coyne is responding to a national climate in which more than half of Americans don’t believe in evolution, members of Congress deny global warming, and long-conquered childhood diseases are reappearing because of religious objections to inoculation, and he warns that religious prejudices in politics, education, medicine, and social policy are on the rise. Extending the bestselling works of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens, he demolishes the claims of religion to provide verifiable “truth” by subjecting those claims to the same tests we use to establish truth in science. Coyne irrefutably demonstrates the grave harm—to individuals and to our planet—in mistaking faith for fact in making the most important decisions about the world we live in. Praise for Faith Versus Fact: “A profound and lovely book . . . showing that the honest doubts of science are better . . . than the false certainties of religion.” —Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith
Download or read book The Trouble with Principle written by Stanley Fish and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2001-03-02 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stanley Fish is an equal opportunity antagonist. A theorist who has taken on theorists, an academician who has riled the academy, a legal scholar and political pundit who has ruffled feathers left and right, Fish here turns with customary gusto to the trouble with principle. Specifically, Fish has a quarrel with neutral principles. The trouble? They operate by sacrificing everything people care about to their own purity. And they are deployed with equal highmindedness and equally absurd results by liberals and conservatives alike. In this bracing book, Fish argues that there is no realm of higher order impartiality--no neutral or fair territory on which to stake a claim--and that those who invoke one are always making a rhetorical and political gesture. In the end, it is history and context, the very substance against which a purportedly abstract principle defines itself, that determines a principle's content and power. In the course of making this argument, Fish takes up questions about academic freedom and hate speech, affirmative action and multiculturalism, the boundaries between church and state, and much more. Sparing no one, he shows how our notions of intellectual and religious liberty--cherished by those at both ends of the political spectrum--are artifacts of the very partisan politics they supposedly transcend. The Trouble with Principle offers a provocative challenge to the debates of our day that no intellectually honest citizen can afford to ignore.
Download or read book Postmodern Sophistry written by Gary A. Olson and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2006-01-01 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fifteen prominent scholars from a range of academic disciplines—legal studies, critical legal studies, political science, Jewish studies, rhetoric, and literary studies—explore various aspects of cultural and literary critic Stanley Fish's work. They examine Fish's understanding of how interpretation functions, the various philosophical issues that Fish has addressed or failed to address in his work, and the political consequences of Fish's thought. Stanley Fish responds to the ideas put forth in this book in a detailed Afterword.
Download or read book Systematic Theology written by Wolfhart Pannenberg and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 1991 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Marked by a creative blend of philosophical, historical, anthropological, and exegetical analysis, this volume focuses on the Christian doctrine of God, offering original material on the concept of truth, the nature of revelation, language about God, the nature of the Trinity, and the public aspect of theology.
Download or read book Systematic Theology Vol 1 written by Wolfhart Pannenberg and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2004-07-09 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Pannenberg's seminal work, the Christian doctrine of God is discussed using exegetical analysis across a number of disciplines. Truth, the nature of revelation, the language used to discuss God, the trinity, and theology in the public sphere are topics for debate.
Download or read book God in the Landscape written by Kerrie Handasyde and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-07-15 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book shows how creative writing gives voice to the drama and nuance of religious experience in a way that is rarely captured by sermons, reports, and the minutes of church meetings. The author explores the history of religious Dissent and Evangelicalism in Australia through a variety of literary responses to landscape, from both men and women, lay and ordained. The book explores transnational themes, along with themes of migration and travel across the Australian continent. The author gives insight into the literature of Protestant Dissent, concerned as it is with travel, belonging, and the intersection of national and religious identity. Much of the writing is situated on the road: a soldier returning from the Great War, a child on a lone adventure, a night-time journey through urban slums; all of these are in some way dependent on the theme of “walking with Jesus” as the Holy Land travelogues make explicit. God in the Landscape draws the links between landscape, literature, and spirituality with imagination and insight and is an important contribution to the historical study of religion and the environment.
Download or read book Philosophical Theology written by Frederick Robert Tennant and published by CUP Archive. This book was released on 1928 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Dionysus Christ and the Death of God Volume 2 written by Giuseppe Fornari and published by MSU Press. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This magisterial reflection on the history and destiny of the West compares Greco-Roman civilization and the Judeo-Christian tradition in order to understand what both unites and divides them. Mediation, understood as a collective, symbolic experience, gives society unity and meaning, putting human beings in contact with a universal object known as the world or reality. But unity has a price: the very force that enables peaceful coexistence also makes us prone to conflict. As a result, in order to find a common point of convergence—of at-one-ment—someone must be sacrificed. Sacrifice, then, is the historical pillar of mediation. It was endorsed in a cosmic-religious sense in antiquity and rejected for ethical reasons in modernity, where the Judeo-Christian tradition plays an intermediate role in condemning sacrificial violence as such, while accepting sacrifice as a voluntary act offered to save other human beings. Today, as we face the collapse of all shared mediations, this intermediating solution offers a way out of our moral and cultural plight.
Download or read book And Now My Son When Your Faith Is Challenged written by Stephen F. Johnsen, Ph.d. and published by . This book was released on 2016-05-13 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Dear Dad,You know, even though I'm not attending a religious school, I didn't realize the topic of religion would come up so frequently. In fact, I didn't realize I would be bombarded with a lot of criticism and questions about my religion. Even the professors are into it. The other day in class, one professor said, "Religion ... relies on the gullibility of its clients, who have been educated to believe without evidence and without explanation." I don't want to fall into that category."Research shows that the millennial generation is the most secular minded in the history of the United States. Consequently, this book is written for youth as well as adults who because of societal trends are curious about the data and evidence of the truths of spiritual records. In the form of emails from a father to his son, this book is clear and easy to digest. This son is away at school and is feeling "bombarded" by secular thought, thereby shaking his spirituality. He is exposed to many who maintain that religion has no credible evidence to support the stories and claims of the scriptures. These philosophies disturb him as he begins to question his own faith. Since this book is a reasoned and data driven approach minimizing stereotypical generalizations, it can be appreciated by individuals of good will who are not only faith-based but also of a skeptical nature, an opportunity for civil discourse on common ground.The author, reared as a Protestant spent his young adult years in religious rebellion and skepticism. Quite unexpectedly, having had a spiritual experience, he joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and has maintained a devout testimony ever since. As a result of his own personal journey the secular attacks are familiar to him and have been a focus of his study. This combined with considerable research into the empirical data that relate to scriptural records have given him the unique ability to address the evidence with respect to all sides. In addition, as a psychologist and researcher, he helps the reader know how to recognize when emotion is used over logic. Throughout this book, Dr. Johnsen demonstrates that religion is improperly characterized as "an opiate for the masses" to a reader of goodwill. In fact, after considering the evidence recorded in this book one prominent attorney said these facts could be upheld in a court of law.
Download or read book It Takes Two to Tango written by H. Newton Malony and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2020-01-15 with total page 43 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Several years ago a friend brought me a book that supposedly contained all the sayings in the English language. I became intrigued. The book told the origin of each saying, its use and its age. Many sayings originated in other countries and were brought by immigrants as they were learning the language. Others were fairly new and came into being on the fronteir or in ethnic conclaves. Their variety was endless. A number were well known but others were fairly rare. I realized how much I did not know and began to wonder how well I would functions in unfamiliar environment were cultural groups gathered together. I decided others my profit from a collection, particularly if I paired selected sayings with Bible verses about which many readers might also be somewhat unfamiliar. Of course, I ran the risk of being selective in my choices of both sayings and Scriptures. Readers might greatly enrich the selection from their own environment or personal experience. My attempt to relate Bible verses to the Says is very questionable. I make no name for its content or perfect fit. The reason I left space for each person to respond via whatever thought the selection and combination should evoke. It is definitely a work in progress and it is meant to incite and excite. There is no order in the selection and the sayings/Bible verses should be read in each person's own choice. The two essays at the end (One, A Comment on the Functions of Sayings and Scripture and another, on Some Thinking about Thinking) are my effort to think in the categories that have consumed my whole profession a Psychologist of Religion. I invite you to join my in reflecting on human life a step above every day existence. I will always enjoy discussions even my efforts to engage in them may become limited in the years to come. Such is the future for a man in his late 80s.
