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At the beginning of a new millennium, philosophical theology has become more contested than ever before. The appearance of non-realist theologies, postmodern theologies, and the theology of 'radical orthodoxy', has provoked a vibrant debate about the nature of theology itself. In what new directions should theology be moving in the wake of the 'end' of modernity? For over thirty years, Don Cupitt has been provoking theologians to reconsider the nature of their discipline. Taking their inspiration from his work and writing in his honour on the occasion of his 70th birthday, some of the leading figures in the contemporary theological scene address urgent questions facing theology today and, in doing so, exemplify the methodological diversity which characterises the contemporary field.
Gavin Hyman explores in depth two antithetical schools of postmodern theology--the "radical orthodoxy" of John Milbank and the "nihilist textualism" of Don Cupitt. Hyman critiques Milbank's influential project from a postmodern perspective, and then points out the major difficulties with Cupitt's approach. Finally, he explores the work of Mark C. Taylor and Michael de Certeau to articulate a "third way" that leads beyond the responses of both Cupitt and Milbank.
Agnosticism: With Respect to God brings together leading philosophers, considering the question of agnosticism, an under-explored area in philosophy and religious thought, from both analytic and continental perspectives. The book explores the various meanings of agnosticism in the twenty-first century.
In this 2007 volume, eighteen of the world's leading scholars present original essays on various aspects of atheism: its history, both ancient and modern, defense and implications. The topic is examined in terms of its implications for a wide range of disciplines including philosophy, religion, feminism, postmodernism, sociology and psychology. In its defense, both classical and contemporary theistic arguments are criticized, and, the argument from evil, and impossibility arguments, along with a non religious basis for morality are defended. These essays give a broad understanding of atheism and a lucid introduction to this controversial topic.
The two-volume Cambridge History of Atheism offers an authoritative and up to date account of a subject of contemporary interest. Comprised of sixty essays by an international team of scholars, this History is comprehensive in scope. The essays are written from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including religious studies, philosophy, sociology, and classics. Offering a global overview of the subject, from antiquity to the present, the volumes examine the phenomenon of unbelief in the context of Christian, Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu, and Jewish societies. They explore atheism and the early modern Scientific Revolution, as well as the development of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and its continuing implications. The History also includes general survey essays on the impact of scepticism, agnosticism and atheism, as well as contemporary assessments of thinking. Providing essential information on the nature and history of atheism, The Cambridge History of Atheism will be indispensable for both scholarship and teaching, at all levels.
"In recent philosophy, theology, and critical theory, postmodern thought has been much criticized on specifically ethical and political grounds. In particular, it has been argued that postmodernism has induced passivity and is impotent in the face of the challenges presented by the hegemonic global market. In response numerous thinkers have called for the ""return of the metanarrative"" or have insisted on the necessity of the domain of the ""universal."" In this book, Gavin Hyman accepts the diagnosis, while contesting the cure. Through detailed engagements with the work of Alain Badiou, Slavoj ?i?ek, and John Milbank--as well as discussions of the work of Simon Critchley, Michael Hardt, and Antonio Negri--Hyman argues that many contemporary thinkers merely invert the problems intrinsic to postmodernism and therefore do not effectively escape them. He argues that the ethical and political are best preserved and perpetuated through the negotiating of an ongoing tension between the domains of the universal, the particular, and the singular. To proceed thus would be to traverse the terrain of the middle--ethically, politically, and religiously."
Post-Secular Philosophy is one of the first volumes to consider how God has been approached by modern philosophers and consider the links between theology and postmodern thought.
Atheism: What Everyone Needs to Know provides a balanced look at the topic, considering atheism historically, philosophically, theologically, sociologically and psychologically.
Is He Out There? is an interdisciplinary examination of the Christian reaction to Dawkinss The God Delusion. That reaction has offered a wide range of counter-arguments, among them: that Dawkinss demonstration of how God almost certainly doesnt exist addresses an out-dated conception of God; that science and religion are not conflictual as Dawkins contends and indeed may well be converging upon an understanding of how God acts in the universe; that Dawkinss denigration of the Bible depends on an overly literal reading; and that Dawkins assumes a narrative of progress in which human beings take the place of God in controlling the course of history. Is He Out There? responds to these arguments...
Can secularism continue to provide a foundation for political legitimacy? It is often claimed that one of the cultural achievements of the West has been its establishment of secular democracy, wherein religious belief is respected but confined to the sphere of private belief. In more recent times, however, political secularism has been increasingly called into question. Religious believers, in numerous traditions, have protested against the distortion and confinement that secularism imposes on their faith. Others have become uneasily aware of the way in which secularism no longer commands universal assent in the way it once did. Confronting Secularism in Europe and India adds to this debate by staging a creative encounter between European and Indian conceptions of secularism with a view to continuing new and distinctive trajectories of thought about the place and role of secularism in contemporary times. Looking at political secularism, the relationship between secularism and religion, and religious and secular violence, this book considers whether there are viable alternatives to secularism in Europe and in India.