Download or read book God and Morality written by R. Keith Loftin and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2012-08-28 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is morality dependent upon belief in God? Is there more than one way for Christians to understand the nature of morality? Is there any agreement between Christians and atheists or agnostics on this heated issue? In God and Morality: Four Views four distinguished voices in moral philosophy ariticulate and defend their place in the current debate between naturalism and theism. Christian philosophers, Keith Yandell and Mark Linville and two self-identified atheist/agnostics, Evan Fales and Michael Ruse clearly and honestly represent their differing views on the nature of morality. Important differences as well as areas of overlap emerge as each contributor states their case, receives criticism from the others and responds. Of particular value for use as an academic text, these four essays and responses, covering the naturalist moral non-realist, naturalist moral realist, moral essentialist and moral particularist views, will foster critical thinking and contribute to the development of a well-informed position on this very important issue.
Download or read book God Morality and Beauty written by Randall B. Bush and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-07-01 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Randall B. Bush analyzes the ways unacknowledged axiological assumptions (e.g., about what is important, why human beings are valuing creatures, and where the capacity to value comes from) prejudice the perspectives and approaches of various academic disciplines, especially in the social sciences and the humanities. The disciplines of ethics and aesthetics provide the most useful tools for a philosophy of value, but academic overspecialization has compartmentalized and segregated these disciplines from others, threatening to unravel the unity of conceptions of the moral and the beautiful in human existence. Bush argues that a dialectical approach to conflicts between ethics and aesthetics can point to a broader, axiological vision––informed by a Trinitarian conception of reality––in which the whole, a coherent theory of value, is more than the sum of its parts.
Download or read book The Beauty of Intolerance written by Josh McDowell and published by Monarch Books. This book was released on 2016-05-20 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today's message of cultural acceptance is dangerously distorted and deceptive. In a world that shouts: 'If you truly care about other people, you must agree that their beliefs, values, lifestyle, and truth claims are equal and as valid as yours!' it's no wonder our youth are confused. The Beauty of Intolerance-brand-new from Josh McDowell with son Sean McDowell-cuts through the confusion and points readers back to the place where the only truth resides...Jesus Christ. Tied directly to the Heroic Truth initiative launched by the Josh McDowell Ministry, the McDowells will share how a biblical view of truth can counter cultural tolerance and encourage a love and acceptance of others apart from their actions with a heart of Christlike compassion.
Download or read book Why God Makes Sense in a World That Doesn t written by Gavin Ortlund and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 2021-10-26 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It has never been more important to articulate the wonder and enchantment of the Christian message. Yet the traditional approaches of apologetics are often outmoded in an age of profound disenchantment and distraction, unable to meet this pressing need. This winsome apologetics book for a new generation makes the case that Christianity offers a compelling explanatory framework for making sense of our world. Pastor and writer Gavin Ortlund believes it is essential to appeal not only to the mind but also to the heart and the imagination as we articulate the beauty of the gospel. Why God Makes Sense in a World That Doesn't reimagines four classical theistic arguments--cosmological, teleological, moral, and Christological--making a cumulative case for God as the best framework for understanding the storied nature of reality. The book suggests that Christian theism can explain such things as the elegance of math, the beauty of music, and the value of love. It is suitable for use in classes yet accessibly written, making it a perfect resource for churches and small groups.
Download or read book The Ethics of Beauty written by Timothy G. Patitsas and published by St. Nicholas Press. This book was released on 2020-01-15 with total page 748 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chaste and ardent eros for the Beautiful is the first task of human life, and falling in love with Beauty is the beginning of every adventure that matters...The original task of Ethics was to guide us to the most just and meaningful life possible. Today, ethicists define their discipline more narrowly as "the rational investigation of morality." This reduces Ethics to an examination of the Good by the True, tacitly suppressing the deep human need for the Beautiful.In The Ethics of Beauty, Orthodox Christian theologian Timothy Patitsas first considers Beauty's opposite, the dark events that traumatize victims of war and other ugly circumstances, and then invites us to rediscover the older Beauty-first approach to moral reasoning and the integrity of the soul.Covering topics ranging from creation to political theory to the Jesus Prayer, including war, psychology, trauma, chastity, healthy shame, gender, marriage, hospitality, art, architecture, theology, economics, urban planning, and complexity theory, The Ethics of Beauty lays out a worldview in which Beauty, Goodness, and Truth are recognized as indispensable elements of the best possible human life.
Download or read book If God Is Love Don t Be a Jerk written by John Pavlovitz and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 2021-09-28 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thou Shalt Not Be Horrible. Imagine for a moment what the world might look like if we as people of faith, morality, and conscience actually aspired to this mantra. What if we were fully burdened to create a world that was more loving and equitable than when we arrived? What if we invited one another to share in wide-open, fearless, spiritual communities truly marked by compassion and interdependence? What if we daily challenged ourselves to live a faith that simply made us better humans? John Pavlovitz explores how we can embody this kinder kind of spirituality where we humbly examine our belief system to understand how it might compel us to act in less-than-loving ways toward others. This simple phrase, "Thou Shalt Not Be Horrible," could help us practice what we preach by creating a world where: spiritual community provides a sense of belonging where all people are received as we are; the most important question we ask of a religious belief is not Is it true? but rather, is it helpful? it is morally impossible to pledge complete allegiance to both Jesus and America simultaneously; the way we treat others is the most tangible and meaningful expression of our belief system. In If God Is Love, Don't Be a Jerk, John Pavlovitz examines the bedrock ideas of our religion: the existence of hell, the utility of prayer, the way we treat LGBTQ people, the value of anger, and other doctrines to help all of us take a good, honest look at how the beliefs we hold can shape our relationships with God and our fellow humans—and to make sure that love has the last, loudest word.
Download or read book Morality Without God written by Walter Sinnott-Armstrong and published by OUP USA. This book was released on 2009-07-02 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A common refrain against atheism and secular humanism is that without belief in God, "everything is permitted." Walter Sinnott-Armstrong dismantles this argument and argues instead that God is not only not essential to morality, but that our moral behavior should be seen as utterly independent of religion. This short, accessible book is on a major aspect of the arguments against atheism and will interest those intrigued by the "new atheism" (Harris, Dawkins, etc).
Download or read book Beauty written by John-Mark L. Miravalle and published by Sophia Institute Press. This book was released on 2019-04-14 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We are meant for beauty, and beauty is meant for us What we moderns have forgotten, the ancients knew well: true beauty heals the soul, draws us to God, and yields lasting happiness. Rich with the wisdom of Plato, Augustine, Aquinas, and St. John Paul II, these pages unpack perennial truths about beauty and rivet them into your soul, opening the eyes of your understanding to the beauty all around us. Offering an abundance of accessible examples, author John Mark Miravalle demonstrates that beauty is neither in the eye of the beholder, nor for the cultivated, the dreamer, or the “hopeless romantic” alone. On the contrary, the ability to understand, recognize, and delight in beauty readies all souls for heaven—and makes it easier for us to get there. From these pages, you’ll learn: • Why beauty is not just a matter of opinion • The virtues we need to perceive beauty and to enjoy it • How to determine whether an artwork is truly beautiful • The respective roles of reason and emotion in appreciating beauty • How the beauty of nature testifies to God’s existence . . . while rejection of God obscures nature’s beauty With the help of these pages, you’ll receive fresh eyes to marvel again (or for the first time) at the beauty of nature, music, art, architecture, and, most importantly, the beauty of God, the fountainhead and exemplar of all things on earth that are beautiful.
Download or read book God and Morality written by John E. Hare and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2009-08-17 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: God and Morality evaluates the ethical theories of four principle philosophers, Aristotle, Duns Scotus, Kant, and R.M. Hare. Uses their thinking as the basis for telling the story of the history and development of ethical thought more broadly Focuses specifically on their writings on virtue, will, duty, and consequence Concentrates on the theistic beliefs to highlight continuity of philosophical thought
Download or read book Aquinas on Beauty written by Christopher Scott Sevier and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2015-02-12 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aquinas on Beauty explores the nature and role of beauty in the thought of Thomas Aquinas. Beginning with a standard definition of beauty provided by Aquinas, it explores each of the components of that definition. The result is a comprehensive account of Aquinas’s formal view on the subject, supplemented by an exploration into Aquinas’s commentary on Dionysius’s Divine Names, including a comparison of his views with those of both Dionysius and those of Aquinas’s mentor, Albert the Great. The book also highlights the tight connection in Aquinas’s thought between aesthetics and ethics, and illustrates how Aquinas preserves what is best about aesthetic traditions preceding him, and anticipates what is best about aesthetic traditions that would follow, marrying objective and subjective aesthetic intuitions and charting a kind of via media between the common extremes.
Download or read book Faith and Beauty written by Edward Farley and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-04-14 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Aesthetics' and 'theological aesthetics' usually imply a focus on questions about the arts and how faith or religion relates to the arts; only the final pages of this work take up that problem. The central theme of this book is that of beauty. Farley employs a new typology of western texts on beauty and a theological analysis of the image of God and redemption to counter the centuries-long tendency to ignore or marginalize beauty and the aesthetic as part of the life of faith. Studying the interpretation of beauty in ancient Greece, eighteenth-century England, the work of Jonathan Edwards, and nineteenth and twentieth-century philosophies of human self-transcendence, the author explores whether Christian existence, the life of faith, and the ethical exclude or require an aesthetic dimension in the sense of beauty. The work will be of particular interest to those interested in Christian theology, ethics, and religion and the arts.
Download or read book Beauty and Sensibility in the Thought of Jonathan Edwards written by Roland Delattre and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2006-04-01 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This illuminating analysis of Jonathan Edwards' philosophical-theological-ethical program focuses on his concept of beauty as our central clue to the nature of reality and the life of God. Delattre shows that beauty not only provides Edwards with a model for the manner of divine governance but operates throughout his thought as both the goal and means of redemption. Essential to his understanding of the operation of beauty as the law of moral order is Edwards' aesthetic/affectional model of the self, which corresponds to his aesthetic articulation of the system of being and good. Thus the distinguishing mark of Edwards' theology--his elevation to centrality of both the primary beauty of being's cordial consent to being and the secondary beauty of harmony and proportion--is shown to be the key to his interpretation of the dynamics of the moral and spiritual life.
Download or read book The Morals of the Story written by David Baggett and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2018-05-08 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christianity Today 2019 Book of the Year Award of Merit, Apologetics/Evangelism What arguments best support the existence of God? For centuries the moral argument—that objective morality points to the existence of God—has been a powerful apologetic tool. In this volume, David and Marybeth Baggett offer a dramatic, robust, and even playful version of the moral argument. Tracing both its historical importance and its contemporary relevance, they argue that it not only still points to God's existence but that it also contributes to our ongoing spiritual transformation.
Download or read book Morality for Beautiful Girls written by Alexander McCall Smith and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2003-12-16 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fans around the world adore the bestselling No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series and its proprietor, Precious Ramotswe, Botswana’s premier lady detective. In this charming series, Mma Ramotswe—with help from her loyal associate, Grace Makutsi—navigates her cases and her personal life with wisdom, good humor, and the occasional cup of tea. In Morality for Beautiful Girls, Precious Ramotswe, founder and owner of the only detective agency for the concerns of both ladies and others, investigates the alleged poisoning of the brother of an important “Government Man,” and the moral character of the four finalists of the Miss Beauty and Integrity Contest, the winner of which will almost certainly be a contestant for the title of Miss Botswana. Yet her business is having money problems, and when other difficulties arise at her fiancé’s Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, she discovers the reliable Mr J.L.B. Matekoni is more complicated then he seems.
Download or read book The Morality of God in the Old Testament written by Gregory K. Beale and published by P & R Publishing. This book was released on 2013 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book For the Love of Beauty written by Arthur Pontynen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For most of the last century the methodology of art history has followed a positivist approach, emphasizing form and style, fact and history as the means of studying works of art. By contrast the philosophical pursuit of truth, once central to the fine arts and humanities has largely been abandoned. In For The Love of Beauty, Arthur Pontynen offers a searching and ambitious critique of modern aesthetic practice that aims to restore the pursuit of the knowledge of reality--Being--to its rightful place.Pontynen begins by addressing the question of why the pursuit of truth (be it called Dao, Dharma, God, Logos, Ideal, etc.) is no longer acceptable in academic circles even though it has been intrinsic to the purpose of art at most times and in most cultures. Lacking the pursuit of truth, of some degree of knowledge of what is true and good, the humanities necessarily lack intellectual and cultural grounding and purpose. Fields of study such as philosophy, music, art, and history are therefore trivialized and brutalized. Pontynen's focus on the study of the visual arts details the how the denial of purpose and quality in modernist and postmodernist aesthetics has denied art any possibility of transcending entertainment, therapy, or propaganda.In place of the established narratives, Pontynen offers a counter-narrative based on a cross-cultural pursuit of the good, the true, and the beautiful. He recognizes that substantively different cultural traditions exist and that the truth claims of each may be valid in whole or in part. He shows how the history of art parallels the intellectual history of Western culture and how these parallels affect both aesthetics and ethics. Pontynen engages with those elements of modernist and postmodernist thought that might be true. His purpose is not simply to deny their validity but to engage a viewpoint that does not privilege the notion of a purposeless cosmos. For the Love of Beauty will be of interest
Download or read book Living with a Wild God written by Barbara Ehrenreich and published by Twelve. This book was released on 2014-04-08 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the New York Times bestselling author of Nickel and Dimed comes a brave, frank, and exquisitely written memoir that will change the way you see the world. Barbara Ehrenreich is one of the most important thinkers of our time. Educated as a scientist, she is an author, journalist, activist, and advocate for social justice. In LIVING WITH A WILD GOD, she recounts her quest-beginning in childhood-to find "the Truth" about the universe and everything else: What's really going on? Why are we here? In middle age, she rediscovered the journal she had kept during her tumultuous adolescence, which records an event so strange, so cataclysmic, that she had never, in all the intervening years, written or spoken about it to anyone. It was the kind of event that people call a "mystical experience"-and, to a steadfast atheist and rationalist, nothing less than shattering. In LIVING WITH A WILD GOD, Ehrenreich reconstructs her childhood mission, bringing an older woman's wry and erudite perspective to a young girl's impassioned obsession with the questions that, at one point or another, torment us all. The result is both deeply personal and cosmically sweeping-a searing memoir and a profound reflection on science, religion, and the human condition. With her signature combination of intellectual rigor and uninhibited imagination, Ehrenreich offers a true literary achievement-a work that has the power not only to entertain but amaze.
