Download or read book Religious Commitment and Secular Reason written by Robert Audi and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2000-03-13 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many religious people are alarmed about features of the current age--violence in the media, a pervasive hedonism, a marginalization of religion, and widespread abortion. These concerns influence politics, but just as there should be a separation between church and state, so should there be a balance between religious commitments and secular arguments calling for social reforms. Robert Audi offers a principle of secular rationale, which does not exclude religious grounds for action but which rules out restricting freedom except on grounds that any rational citizen would accept. This book describes the essential commitments of free democracy, explains how religious and secular moral considerations can be integrated to facilitate cooperation in a world of religious pluralism, and proposes ideals of civic virtue that express the mutual respect on which democracy depends.
Download or read book Rationality and Religious Commitment written by Robert Audi and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2011-09-22 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rationality and Religious Commitment shows how religious commitment can be rational and describes the place of faith in the postmodern world. It portrays religious commitment as far more than accepting doctrines—it is viewed as a kind of life, not just as an embrace of tenets. Faith is conceived as a unique attitude. It is irreducible to belief but closely connected with both belief and conduct, and intimately related to life's moral, political, and aesthetic dimensions. Part One presents an account of rationality as a status attainable by mature religious people—even those with a strongly scientific habit of mind. Part Two describes what it means to have faith, how faith is connected with attitudes, emotions, and conduct, and how religious experience may support it. Part Three turns to religious commitment and moral obligation and to the relation between religion and politics. It shows how ethics and religion can be mutually supportive even though ethics provides standards of conduct independently of theology. It also depicts the integrated life possible for the religiously committed—a life with rewarding interactions between faith and reason, religion and science, and the aesthetic and the spiritual. The book concludes with two major accounts. One explains how moral wrongs and natural disasters are possible under God conceived as having the knowledge, power, and goodness that make such evils so difficult to understand. The other account explores the nature of persons, human and divine, and yields a conception that can sustain a rational theistic worldview even in the contemporary scientific age.
Download or read book Secular Faith written by Vincent William Lloyd and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is faith a necessary virtue in the contemporary world? May it be, or must it be, detached from religious commitment? What do genealogies of the secular tell us about faith? Does religion need secular faith? Secular Faith brings together leading and emerging scholars to reflect on the apparent paradox of "secular faith." Ranging over anthropology, religious studies, political science, history, and literature, from Muslims in China to Pentecostals in South Africa to a prison chapel in Texas, this collection of essays is as engaging and accessible as it is penetrating and rigorous. Communism was once labeled "the god that failed." Like Christianity, Communism involves faith in a superhuman endeavor, conversion, myth, discipline, and salvation--and, from the perspective of secular liberalism, both are unjustified and false. In recent years, scholars have begun to investigate whether secularism is itself based on faith in a god that failed, or is failing. Nevertheless, many still embrace such a faith, finding in the spirit of democracy an ethos of eternal renewal. Secular Faith enters and broadens this conversation, interrogating secular faith in a global context, tapping new theoretical resources, and grappling provocatively with the tragedies and opportunities of today's profane pantheon of beliefs.
Download or read book Disagreement Deference and Religious Commitment written by John Pittard and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-10-01 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The striking extent of religious disagreement suggests that religious conviction is very often the result of processes that do not reliably produce true beliefs. For this reason, many have argued that the only rational response to religious disagreement is to adopt a religious skepticism that eschews confident religious belief. Disagreement, Deference, and Religious Commitment contests this skeptical conclusion, explaining how it could be rational to maintain confident belief even in the face of the epistemic worries posed by disagreement. John Pittard argues against the commitment to rigorous epistemic impartiality that underlies the case for disagreement-motivated religious skepticism, while also critiquing approaches to disagreement that allow for the unproblematic privileging of one's first-person perspective. He emphasizes the importance of having rational insight into reasons that favor one's outlook; however, he challenges narrowly intellectualist accounts of insight, arguing that many of the rational insights crucial to assessing religious outlooks are not achievable through analytical reasoning, but only through relevant emotional experiences. In the second part of the book, Pittard considers the implications that accepting the impartiality requirement favored by "disagreement skeptics" has for religious commitment. He challenges the common assumption that a commitment to rigorous epistemic impartiality would rule out confident religious belief. He further argues, however, that such an impartiality commitment would likely make it irrational to pursue one's favored form of religious life and might prevent one from rationally engaging in any religious or irreligious way of life whatsoever. This troubling conclusion gives reason to hope that the arguments against impartiality are correct and that one can justify conviction despite widespread disagreement.
Download or read book Religious Commitment and Salvation written by Claudia Card and published by Merrill Publishing Company. This book was released on 1974 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Secular Age written by Charles Taylor and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2018-09-17 with total page 889 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The place of religion in society has changed profoundly in the last few centuries, particularly in the West. In what will be a defining book for our time, Taylor takes up the question of what these changes mean, and what, precisely, happens when a society becomes one in which faith is only one human possibility among others.
Download or read book Why America Needs Religion written by Guenter Lewy and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 1996 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a print on demand book and is therefore non- returnable. What is wrong with America? It has often called itself a Christian nation, yet its social and moral problems are legion. The increasing rates of crime, juvenile delinquency, teenage pregnancy, sexual promiscuity, and divorce are frequently linked to the declining importance of religious belief. But is there more than a presumed link between the strength of personal religiousness and moral behavior? Yes, says Guenter Lewy, and the large quantity of empirical data in existence which establishes that link ought to move people -- Christians and non-Christians alike -- to sit up and take note. In this trenchant analysis of the moral decline of modern America, Lewy describes the moral crisis caused by secular modernity and points to the role of religiousness -- especially Christian religiousness -- as a necessary bulwark against today's social ills. This work is all the more intriguing in that Lewy is an agnostic who has nonetheless concluded that a society that cuts itself off from the religious roots of its moral heritage is doomed to decline. Lewy traces the rise of secularism in Western society, focusing particularly on the cult of individualism, and describes the social consequences of the weakened role of religion. He demonstrates that the crisis of the family and the rise of the underclass in our inner cities are linked to the decline of traditional values and shows, on the basis of surveys and other empirical data, that genuine religiousness can ward off some of the corrosive effects of modernity. Lewy concludes by calling on Christians, adherents of other faiths, and true humanists to join forces in the struggle to reverse the current ethos of radical individualism that threatens the moral integrity of our society.
Download or read book God The Evidence written by Patrick Glynn and published by Harmony. This book was released on 2010-06-09 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the modern age science has been winning its centuries—old battle with religion for the mind of man. The evidence has long seemed incontrovertible: Life was merely a product of blind chance—a cosmic roll of an infinite number of dice across an eternity of time. Slowly, methodically, scientists supplied answers to mysteries insufficiently explained by theologians. Reason pushed faith off into the shadows of mythology and superstition, while atheism became a badge of wisdom. Our culture, freed from moral obligation, explored the frontiers of secularism. God was dead. "Glynn's arguments for the existence of God put the burden of disproof on those intellectuals who think that the question has long since been settled." — Andrew M. Greeley But now, in the twilight of the twentieth century, a startling transformation is taking place in Western scientific and intellectual thought. At its heart is the dawning realization that the universe, far from being a sea of chaos, appears instead to be an intricately tuned mechanism whose every molecule, whose every physical law, seems to have been design from the very first nanosecond of the big bang toward a single end—the creation of life. This intellectually and spiritually riveting book asks a provocative question: Is science, the long-time nemesis of the Deity, uncovering the face of God? Patrick Glynn lays out the astonishing new evidence that caused him to turn away from the atheism he acquired as a student at Harvard and Cambridge. The facts are fascinating: Physicists are discovering an unexplainable order to the cosmos; medical researchers are reporting the extraordinary healing powers of prayer and are documenting credible accounts of near-death experiences; psychologists, who once considered belief in God to be a sign of neurosis, are finding instead that religious faith is a powerful elixir for mental health; and sociologists are now acknowledging the destructive consequences of a value-free society. God: The Evidence argues that faith today is not grounded in ignorance. It is where reason has been leading us all along.
Download or read book Faith and Reason written by Donald A. Crosby and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-01-02 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few words are as widely misconceived as the word "faith." Faith is often set in stark opposition to reason, considered antithetical to scientific thought, and heavily identified with religion. Donald Crosby's revealing book provides a more complex picture, discussing faith and its connection to the whole of human life and human knowledge. Crosby writes about that existential faith that underlies, shapes, and supports a person's life and its sense of purpose and direction. Such faith does not make a person religious and being secular does not mean one rejects all forms of faith. Throughout the book Crosby makes the case that faith is fundamentally involved in all processes of reasoning and that reason is an essential part of all dependable forms of faith. Crosby elaborates the major components of faith and goes on to look at the mutually dependent relationships between faith and knowledge, faith and scientific knowledge, and faith and morality. The work's final chapters examine crises of faith among several noted thinkers as well as the author's own journey of faith from plans for the ministry to pastor to secular philosopher and religious naturalist.
Download or read book Democratic Authority and the Separation of Church and State written by Robert Audi and published by OUP USA. This book was released on 2011-09 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book clarifies the relation between religion and ethics, articulates principles governing religion in politics, and outlines a theory of civic virtue. It frames institutional principles to guide governmental policies toward religion and counterpart standards to guide individual citizens; and it defends an account of toleration that leavens the ethical framework both in individual nations and internationally.
Download or read book Religion in the Public Square written by and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2000-01-01 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This vigorous debate between two distinguished philosophers presents two views on a topic of worldwide importance: the role of religion in politics. Audi argues that citizens in a free democracy should distinguish religious and secular considerations and give them separate though related roles. Wolterstorff argues that religious elements are both appropriate in politics and indispensable to the vitality of a pluralistic democracy. Each philosopher first states his position in detail, then responds to and criticizes the opposing viewpoint. Written with engaging clarity, Religion in the Public Square will spur discussion among scholars, students, and citizens.
Download or read book This Life written by Martin Hägglund and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2020-02-04 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the René Wellek Prize Named a Best Book of the Year by The Guardian, The Millions, and The Sydney Morning Herald This Life offers a profoundly inspiring basis for transforming our lives, demonstrating that our commitment to freedom and democracy should lead us beyond both religion and capitalism. Philosopher Martin Hägglund argues that we need to cultivate not a religious faith in eternity but a secular faith devoted to our finite life together. He shows that all spiritual questions of freedom are inseparable from economic and material conditions: what matters is how we treat one another in this life and what we do with our time. Engaging with great philosophers from Aristotle to Hegel and Marx, literary writers from Dante to Proust and Knausgaard, political economists from Mill to Keynes and Hayek, and religious thinkers from Augustine to Kierkegaard and Martin Luther King, Jr., Hägglund points the way to an emancipated life.
Download or read book Religious Advocacy and American History written by Bruce Kuklick and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 1997 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a print on demand book and is therefore non- returnable. To what extent does the culture of the modern research university harbor and nurture a bias against religion? Some scholars believe that the academy inconsistently excludes personal religious convictions while welcoming most other kinds of personal beliefs such as those concerning gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Others says that religion in the university is thriving and point to the proliferation of religious studies programs and the mounting literature on religion in the social sciences and humanities. Related to the question of academic bias against religion is the degree to which teaching about religion is a form of religious advocacy. Some believe that even though teaching about religion is necessary to understand human experience, such teaching often borders on advocacy if the dogmatic, intolerant, and unreasonable nature of religion is not acknowledged. Others answer that if professors may advocate other ideologies -- whether political, cultural, or economic -- that are fairly partisan, then religion should not be treated differently. Religious Advocacy and American History explores the general question of bias and objectivity in higher learning from the perspective of the role of religious convictions in the study of American history. The contributors to this book, many of whom are leading historians of American religion and culture, address primarily two related questions. First, how do personal religious convictions influence one's own research, writing, and teaching? And, second, what place should personal beliefs have within American higher education? Contributors: Catherine L. Albanese Paul Boyer Paul A. Carter Elizabeth Fox-Genovese Eugene D. Genovese D. G. Hart Bruce Kuklick George M. Marsden Murray G. Murphey Mark A. Noll Leo Ribuffo Harry S. Stout Leslie Woodcock Tentler Grant Wacker
Download or read book Humanism A Very Short Introduction written by Stephen Law and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2011-01-27 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Summary: Philosopher Stephen Law explains why humanism--though a rejection of religion--nevertheless provides both a moral basis and a meaning for our lives.-publisher description.
Download or read book Why Tolerate Religion written by Brian Leiter and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2014-08-24 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why it's wrong to single out religious liberty for special legal protections This provocative book addresses one of the most enduring puzzles in political philosophy and constitutional theory—why is religion singled out for preferential treatment in both law and public discourse? Why are religious obligations that conflict with the law accorded special toleration while other obligations of conscience are not? In Why Tolerate Religion?, Brian Leiter shows why our reasons for tolerating religion are not specific to religion but apply to all claims of conscience, and why a government committed to liberty of conscience is not required by the principle of toleration to grant exemptions to laws that promote the general welfare.
Download or read book Religious Convictions and Political Choice written by Kent Greenawalt and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1991 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How far may Americans properly rely on their religious beliefs when they make and defend political decisions? For example, are ordinary citizens or legislators doing something wrong when they consciously allow their decisions respecting abortion laws to be determined by their religious views? Despite its intense contemporary relevance, the full dimensions of this issue have until now not been thoroughly examined. Religious Convictions and Political Choice represents the first attempt to fill this gap. Beginning with an account of the basic premises of our liberal democracy, Greenawalt moves to a comparison between rational secular grounds of decision and grounds based on religious convictions. He discusses particular issues such as animal rights and abortion, showing how religious convictions can bear on an individual's decisions about them, and inquires whether reliance on such convictions is compatible with liberal democratic premises. In conclusion, he argues that citizens cannot be expected to rely exclusively on rational, secular grounds.
Download or read book Imagining Judeo Christian America written by K. Healan Gaston and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2019-11-15 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Judeo-Christian” is a remarkably easy term to look right through. Judaism and Christianity obviously share tenets, texts, and beliefs that have strongly influenced American democracy. In this ambitious book, however, K. Healan Gaston challenges the myth of a monolithic Judeo-Christian America. She demonstrates that the idea is not only a recent and deliberate construct, but also a potentially dangerous one. From the time of its widespread adoption in the 1930s, the ostensible inclusiveness of Judeo-Christian terminology concealed efforts to promote particular conceptions of religion, secularism, and politics. Gaston also shows that this new language, originally rooted in arguments over the nature of democracy that intensified in the early Cold War years, later became a marker in the culture wars that continue today. She argues that the debate on what constituted Judeo-Christian—and American—identity has shaped the country’s religious and political culture much more extensively than previously recognized.
