The Theology of Light and Sight
The Theology of Light and Sight

Author: Kenneth L. Vaux

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2011-01-01

Total Pages: 152

ISBN-13: 1498273963

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And God said: "Let there be light." And there was light. These words mark the first step in the creation of all life. The very genesis of light is tied to the nature and purpose of God--God as the author of light, as the pouring out of light, as light itself. Believers in the three Abrahamic faiths have always understood God as light. The Hebrew scriptures celebrate this divine illumination: "Yahweh is my light and my salvation . . ." (Psalm 27). Christians, too, proclaim that "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1.5). For Muslims, "Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth" (Sura 24.35). And theologians and mystics of all ages have explored the revelation and meaning of divine light. This volume explores the theme of divine illumination in the traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Theologians, physicians, and philosophers share their wisdom and understanding of the uncreated light that God is, the created physical light of the world, and the relationship of enlightenment to human reason and ethics. Contributors: Philip Amerson Jamal Badawi Kimberley Curnyn Mark A. Dennis, Jr. Souleymane Bachir Diagne Wendy Doniger Peter Knobel Larry Murphy William Murphy Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern Morton Schapiro Jan van Eys Kenneth L. Vaux Sara Anson Vaux Richard Vaux Julie Windsor Mitchell K.K. Yeo

From Sight to Light
From Sight to Light

Author: A. Mark Smith

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2017-11-16

Total Pages: 470

ISBN-13: 022652857X

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From its inception in Greek antiquity, the science of optics was aimed primarily at explaining sight and accounting for why things look as they do. By the end of the seventeenth century, however, the analytic focus of optics had shifted to light: its fundamental properties and such physical behaviors as reflection, refraction, and diffraction. This dramatic shift—which A. Mark Smith characterizes as the “Keplerian turn”—lies at the heart of this fascinating and pioneering study. Breaking from previous scholarship that sees Johannes Kepler as the culmination of a long-evolving optical tradition that traced back to Greek antiquity via the Muslim Middle Ages, Smith presents Kepler instead as marking a rupture with this tradition, arguing that his theory of retinal imaging, which was published in 1604, was instrumental in prompting the turn from sight to light. Kepler’s new theory of sight, Smith reveals, thus takes on true historical significance: by treating the eye as a mere light-focusing device rather than an image-producing instrument—as traditionally understood—Kepler’s account of retinal imaging helped spur the shift in analytic focus that eventually led to modern optics. A sweeping survey, From Sight to Light is poised to become the standard reference for historians of optics as well as those interested more broadly in the history of science, the history of art, and cultural and intellectual history.

Grounded in Heaven
Grounded in Heaven

Author: Michael Allen

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Published: 2018-10-02

Total Pages: 205

ISBN-13: 1467451266

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Eschatology and ethics are joined at the hip, says Michael Allen, and both need theocentric reorientation. In Grounded in Heaven Allen retrieves the traditional concept of the beatific vision and seeks to bring Christ back into the heart of our theology and our lives on earth. Responding to the earthly-mindedness of much recent theology, Allen places his focus on God and the heavenly future while also appreciating ways in which the Reformed tradition provides a unique angle on broadly catholic concerns. Reaching back to classical ethics as well as its reformation by Calvin and other Reformed theologians, Grounded in Heaven offers a distinctly Protestant account of the ascetical calling to be heavenly-minded and to deny one’s self.

Holy Envy
Holy Envy

Author: Barbara Brown Taylor

Publisher: Canterbury Press

Published: 2019-03-30

Total Pages: 144

ISBN-13: 1786220792

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The renowned Christian preacher and New York Times bestselling author of An Altar in the World recounts her moving discoveries of finding the sacred in unexpected places while teaching world religions to undergraduates in Baptist-saturated rural Georgia, revealing how God delights in confounding our expectations. Christians are taught that God is everywhere--a tenet that is central to Barbara Brown Taylor's life and faith. In Holy Envy, she continues her spiritual journey, contemplating the myriad ways she encountered God while exploring other faiths with her students in the classroom, and on field trips to diverse places of worship. Both she and her students ponder how the knowledge and insights they have gained raise important questions about belief, and explore how different practices relate to their own faith. Inspired by this intellectual and spiritual quest, Barbara turns once again to the Bible for guidance, to see what secrets lay buried there. Throughout Holy Envy, Barbara weaves together stories from her classroom with reflections on how her own spiritual journey has been challenged and renewed by connecting with people of other traditions--and by meeting God in them. At the heart of her odyssey is her trust that it is God who pushes her beyond her comfortable boundaries and calls us to "disown" our privatised versions of the divine--a change that ultimately deepens her relationship with both the world and with God, and ours.

The Intellectual World of C. S. Lewis
The Intellectual World of C. S. Lewis

Author: Alister E. McGrath

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2013-02-19

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13: 1118503163

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Marking the 50th anniversary of Lewis’ death, TheIntellectual World of C. S. Lewis sees leading Christianthinker Alister McGrath offering a fresh approach to understandingthe key themes at the centre of Lewis’ theological work andintellectual development. Brings together a collection of original essays exploringimportant themes within Lewis’ work, offering new connectionsand insights into his theology Throws new light on subjects including Lewis’intellectual development, the uses of images in literature andtheology, the place of myth in modern thought, the role of theimagination in making sense of the world, the celebrated 'argumentfrom desire', and Lewis’ place as an Anglican thinker and aChristian theologian Written by Alister McGrath, one of the world’s leadingChristian thinkers and authors; this exceptional pairing of McGrathand Lewis brings together the work of two outstanding theologiansin one volume

Learning to Walk in the Dark
Learning to Walk in the Dark

Author: Barbara Brown Taylor

Publisher: Canterbury Press

Published: 2014-06-30

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 1848256175

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In this long awaited follow-up to the best-selling An Altar in the World, Barbara Brown Taylor explores ‘the treasures of darkness’ that the Bible speaks about. What can we learn about the ways of God when we cannot see the way ahead, are lost, alone, frightened, not in control or when the world around us seems to have descended into darkness?

Gospel-Centered Discipleship
Gospel-Centered Discipleship

Author: Jonathan K. Dodson

Publisher: Crossway

Published: 2012-03-31

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13: 1433530244

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Reflecting on the practice of disciple making in young adult, college, graduate, and local church contexts, Jonathan Dodson has discerned some common pitfalls. For many, discipleship is reduced to a form of religious performance before God. For others, it devolves into spiritual license and a loose adherence to spiritual facts. Both approaches distort biblical motivations for Christian obedience and are in need of reform. By explaining various motivations for discipleship, Dodson charts a biblically faithful, grace-driven alternative. Additionally, he provides a practical model for creating gospel-centered discipleship groups—small, reproducible, missional, gender-specific groups of believers that fight for faith together. This book blends both theology and practice to inspire and equip Christians to effectively fight sin, keep Jesus central, and make gospel-centered discipleship a way of life. Both new and growing Christians will learn to trust the gospel in community as they fight together for holiness as well as how to start gospel-centered community groups in any local church.

The Presence of Light
The Presence of Light

Author: Matthew Kapstein

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2004-11-03

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 0226424928

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There is perhaps no greater constant in religious intuition and experience than the presence of light. In spiritual traditions East and West, light is not only ubiquitous but something that assumes strikingly similar forms in altogether different historical and cultural settings. This study examines light as an aspect of religiously valued experiences and its entailments for mystical theology, philosophy, politics, and religious art. The essays in this volume make an important contribution to religious studies by proposing that it is misleading to conceive of religious experience in terms of an irreconcilable dichotomy between universality and cultural construction. An esteemed group of contributors, representing the study of Asian and Western religious traditions from a range of disciplinary perspectives, suggests that attention to various forms of divine radiance shows that there is indeed a range of principles that, if not universal, are nevertheless very widely occurring and amenable to fruitful comparative inquiry. What results is a work of enormous scope, demonstrating compelling cross-connections that will be of value to scholars of comparative religions, mysticism, and the relationship between art and the sacred. Contributors: * Catherine B. Asher * Raoul Birnbaum * Sarah Iles Johnston * Matthew T. Kapstein * Andrew Louth * Paul E. Muller-Ortega * Elliot R. Wolfson * Mimi Hall Yiengpruksawan * Hossein Ziai

Christ the Light
Christ the Light

Author: David L. Whidden III

Publisher: Fortress Press

Published: 2014-07-01

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 1451472323

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In Christ the Light, Whidden argues that illumination is a critical systematic motif in Aquinas’ theology, one that involves the nature of truth, knowledge, and God; at the root, Aquinas’ theology of light, or illumination, is Christological, grounding human knowledge of God and eschatological beatitude. This volume establishes the theological network formed by the crucial motif of light/illumination in Aquinas, from how theology operates to the systematic, sacramental, and moral coordinates in Aquinas’ theology.

A Light to the Nations
A Light to the Nations

Author: Michael W. Goheen

Publisher: Baker Academic

Published: 2011-04-01

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 1441214461

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There is a growing body of literature about the missional church, but the word missional is often defined in competing ways with little attempt to ground it deeply in Scripture. Michael Goheen, a dynamic speaker and the coauthor of two popular texts on the biblical narrative, unpacks the missional identity of the church by tracing the role God's people are called to play in the biblical story. Goheen shows that the church's identity can be understood only when its role is articulated in the context of the whole biblical story--not just the New Testament, but the Old Testament as well. He also explores practical outworkings and implications, offering field-tested suggestions for contemporary churches.