In 1850, Samuel Nelles, a well-educated Methodist minister, was selected to resuscitate the debt-ridden and declining Victoria University. As principal, and later as president and chancellor, he fought against shortsighted government educational policies while making the school into one of the premier universities in Canada. A true academic, Nelles believed in the importance of testing assumed laws, dogmas, and creeds. However his pursuit of intellectual inquiry was always guided by a rational faith in God, as well as the expectation of the future greatness and goodness of humanity. "Faithful Intellect" expands the reader's understanding of many of the key intellectual, religious, and political concerns of nineteenth-century English Canada while providing an essential contribution to the study of Canada’s system of higher education.
Do various members of the church--regardless of their generation, gender, race, sexual orientation, country of origin, and whatever their doubts are about official church teachings and policies--have any role in determining, safeguarding, and assessing the authentic teaching and praxis of the faith of the church? This has always been a haunting question in the life of the Christian church, though only recently acknowledged, because of the long-standing role of male clergy of European descent with a Eurocentric outlook who held hierarchical offices and determined official doctrines and moral and disciplinary codes. There have been controversies that bear on these matters over the course of the church's history. But it has only been over the last fifty years that the question has received increasing attention among Roman Catholics in terms of the baptismal anointing of the Spirit that bestows the gift of the sense of the faith on individuals and the collective sense of the faithful. This gift provides discerning skills to recognize, receive, and imaginatively and practically apply the living faith in history and society. This book explores these issues from historical, sociological, systematic and theological ethical perspectives, infused by the contributions of world Christianities.
Fergus Kerr, OP is one of the foremost Catholic theologians of his generation. His works are widely read by specialists and students in the UK, North America and across the world. His 'Theology after Wittgenstein' is regarded as a seminal work in philosophical theology. His 'After Aquinas: Versions of Thomism' and 'Twentieth Century Catholic Theologians' are two of the finest student-focussed introductions to their topics currently available. The essays in this collection cover the two key areas of Kerr's contribution: the relationship between theology and philosophy, focusing particularly on Thomism; and twentieth century Catholic thought. These themes provide the volume's coherence. A key strength of this volume lies in the stature of its contributors. These include the Canadian Catholic philosopher and Templeton-laureate Charles Taylor, Stanley Hauerwas, John Milbank, David Burrell and Denys Turner. A number of younger contributors, representing the influence of Kerr over several generations, are also represented.
This new study focuses on the critically neglected area of Rossetti's devotional poetry and her prose, offering a critical intervention in the feminist construction of an important Victorian woman poet.
In Defense of the Faithful-The Scriptural Truth of Catholicism was written as an aggressive defense of the Catholic Faith. It explores the foundations and historic origins of Catholic doctrine from an evangelical, fundamentalist, and reformed Protestant point of view. It offers the teachings of the Church in common language then defends the position with scriptural quotations from throughout the Holy Bible. It then quotes the Catechism (formal teaching doctrine) of the Catholic Church offering a factual presentation of what the Church actually teaches rather than what many people think it teaches. In doing so it is critical not only of Protestantism but some aspects of Catholicism (in practice) as well. It credits and praises both groups of Christians as being believers dedicated to Jesus and the Trinity while pointing out the mutual failures of both groups. It is a thought provoking examination of Catholic doctrine, practice, theology, and ethics from a biblical viewpoint and is not afraid to point fingers at all parties involved in greater Christianity.
By the early twentieth century, there were close to two hundred American missionaries working in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. They came in droves as early as 1830, organizing hundreds of schools, hospitals, printing presses, and seminaries. Until now, the missionaries' sources and perspectives have dominated discussions of this moment in history, but the experiences of the Ottoman authorities are just as, if not more, revealing of an increasingly tense relationship between Christianity and Islam. An enthralling narrative of how locals made sense of American religious activity in the Ottoman Empire, Faithful Encounters examines the relationships between the authorities who managed the empire from the capital city of Istanbul, provincial agents who carried out the capital's orders, and the missionaries who engaged with them. Exploring a wide range of untapped sources – from imperial ministries, security forces, and local petitions to international reports and missionary collections – Emrah Sahin traces the interactions of the Ottoman authorities, focusing on the viewpoints and manoeuvres they adopted to monitor and conquer the missionary presence at a time of turbulent public and political upheaval. Offering a comparative context from which to reconsider recent cultural relations in the region, Faithful Encounters is not only a history of Christian and Muslim relations. It is a lesson about a failing mission in a failing empire, with stunning relevance to the looming religious and ethnic crises of today.
What do Christianity and librarianship have in common? Netherlands Prime Minister and theologian Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) was among the first in the modern era to attempt to rejoin the dichotomy of sacred vs. secular study when he said, "no single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest." Over the years a number of publications have followed Kuyper's lead yet little has been written on the subject since Greg A. Smith's notable Christian Librarianship (2002). Building on Smith's work, this volume seeks to bridge the sacred/secular divide with an exploration of how Christianity and the gospel are manifested through the profession of librarianship.
For more than fifty years, Lutherans and Catholics in the United States have listened to the word of God in dialogue with one another. The conversation has borne great fruit in overcoming past misunderstandings, prejudices, and even at times enmity between the two communions. It has fostered mutual appreciation, respect, and significant agreement on what were once thought to be irreconcilable doctrinal differences. But as major changes in church and society accelerate, the process by which communions make judgments and teach them to the faithful is of vital importance. Faithful Teaching is the twelfth dialogue of the U.S. Lutheran-Catholic Dialogue. It seeks greater mutual understanding of the two communions' respective processes of faithful teaching. It is offered in the hope that such understanding will contribute to our common efforts to witness more faithfully to the gospel of Jesus Christ in the world. In challenging times, the call to continue to preach and teach the gospel together resounds with new urgency.
Faith Lies: 7 Incomplete Ideas That Hijack Faith and How to See Beyond Them is for people noticing the cracks in the foundation of their faith as well as those who feel they have been hurt or discarded by a God or a faith that just does not make sense. Faith lies are those seemingly required religious ideas or spiritual beliefs that are often confusing and rarely helpful. LIE 1 -- The Bible is the Literal Word of God -- The Bible is not the written record of God’s dictation. God was most certainly the inspiration for the Bible, but not the medium. People were the medium—they did the storytelling, the writing, the selecting, and the interpretation that resulted in the Bible. The Bible is not God’s Bill of Rights and Constitution. Rather, it is a divinely inspired story of progression that should open things up rather than constrict and regulate. LIE 2 -- God is Angry and Doesn’t Like Me--Especially When I Sin -- Instead of perceiving God as a loving parent, many of us understand God as a cosmic scorekeeper, intent on our purification. Understanding God as a loving parent not only requires a reframing of our perception of God but also invites us to see each other and ourselves as beloved children. LIE 3 -- The Devil is God’s Counterpart -- This is the bad idea that the Bible presents a continuous, consistent narrative about the devil. It simply does not. Moreover, when we string together what we actually have--disparate statements about satan made by different people, from different places, languages, cultures, and times--we arrive at the strange notion that there is a “good” god who is responsible for the “good” things in our lives and a “bad” god (satan) who handles the “bad” stuff. LIE 4 -- I Am Supposed to Protect and Defend God and My Faith -- There are real tensions and conflicts around the globe today that are built on the notion that as people of faith, one of our jobs is to defend our faith or our God. Rather than settling for a god who needs our protection, we can follow the powerfully divine thread of moving “beyond the tribe” that is found throughout the Bible. LIE 5 -- There is One Right Way to Believe and One Right Way to Behave -- One of the root lies of fundamentalism--in all faiths--is the notion that true faith is defined by believing the right things and acting the right way. Isn’t it more likely that we are all part of a diverse creation that flows from a God that cannot be contained by any one belief or behavior? LIE 6 -- Faith is a Private Matter -- Much like whom we voted for in the last election or how much money we make, people have wrongfully accepted the idea that faith is a private matter and not to be shared with others. The spiritual life has always been a communal life. We require others to undertake our journey, and others need us, too. LIE 7 -- Real Faith is Blind Belief -- The idea that true faith has no doubts or questions creates a powerless and impotent faith that discourages critical thinking and fosters the ridiculous assumption that science and faith are unrelated. Real faith actually requires doubt, criticism, and exploration in order to change us—let alone change the world. While the loud voices at the margins adamantly declare faith either completely irrelevant or capable of being contained in one narrow ideology, most people get lost in the mix, feeling no certainty or comfort in either direction. Faith Lies deconstructs the terrible notion that faithlessness and fundamentalism are our only options.
Islamic philosophy has often been treated as being largely of historical interest, belonging to the history of ideas rather than to philosophical study. This volume successfully overturns that view. Emphasizing the living nature and rich diversity of the subject, it examines the main thinkers and schools of thought, discusses the key concepts of Islamic philosophy and covers a vast geographical area. This indispensable reference tool includes a comprehensive bibliography and an extensive index.
