James F. Sennett and Douglas Groothuis have assembled a distinguished array of scholars to examine the Humean legacy with care and make the case for a more robust, if chastened, natural theology after Hume.
Biblical and natural theology may not appear to mix, but the two actually do belong together. Vos’s reputation as the father of contemporary biblical theology is not negated by his earlier teaching of natural theology, appearing here for the first time in English. Gathered from source material found in the Heritage Hall archives at Calvin Seminary and University, these are the earliest notes of Vos’s lectures on natural theology. They demonstrate his understanding of Reformed orthodox approaches as well as extensive knowledge of contemporary developments in the subject. The present volume could be regarded as, and may have formed, a partial introduction to Reformed Dogmatics since it lacks a prolegomenon and because Natural Theology discusses religion and the proofs for the existence of God.
‘This is Wright at his best – exegete, theologian, churchman, and public intellectual rolled into one.’ Miroslav Volf ‘Wright’s crowning achievement.’ John Cottingham Building on his critically acclaimed Gifford Lectures, N. T. Wright presents a richly nuanced case for a theology based on a renewed understanding of historical knowledge. The question of 'natural theology' interlocks with the related questions of how we can conceive of God acting in the world, and of why, if God is God, the world is full of evil. Can specific events in history, like those reported in the Gospels, afford the necessary point from which to answer such questions? Widely shared cultural and philosophical assumptions have conditioned our understanding of history in ways that make the idea of divine action in history problematic. But could better historical study itself win from ancient Jewish and Christian cosmology and eschatology a renewed way of understanding the relationship between God and the world? N. T. Wright argues that this can indeed be done, and in this ground-breaking book he develops a distinctive approach to natural theology grounded in what he calls an 'epistemology of love'. This approach arises from his reflection on the significance of the ancient concept of the 'new creation' for our understanding the reality of the world, the reality of God and their relation to one another.
The momentous encounter between Christian thought and Greek philosophy reached a high point in fourth-century Byzantium, and the principal actors were four Greek-speaking Christian thinkers whose collective influence on the Eastern Church was comparable to that of Augustine on Western Latin Christendom. In this erudite and informative book, a distinguished scholar provides the first coherent account of the lives and writings of these so-called Cappadocians (named for a region in what is now eastern Turkey), showing how they managed to be Greek and Christian at the same time. Jaroslav Pelikan describes the four Cappadocians--Gregory of Nazianzus, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, and Macrina, sister and teacher of the last two--who were trained in Classical culture, philosophy, and rhetoric but who were also defenders and expositors of Christian orthodoxy. On one issue of faith and life after another--the nature of religious language, the ways of knowing, the existence of God, the universe as cosmos, time, and space, free will and immortality, the nature of the good life, the purpose of the universe--they challenged and debated the validity of the Greek philosophical tradition in interpreting Scripture. Because the way they resolved these issues became the very definition of normative Christian belief, says Pelikan, their system is still a key to our understanding not only of Christianity's diverse religious traditions but also of its intellectual and philosophical traditions. This book is based on the prestigious Gifford Lectures, presented by Jaroslav Pelikan at the University of Aberdeen in 1992 and 1993.
“Ann Druyan has unearthed a treasure. It is a treasure of reason, compassion, and scientific awe. It should be the next book you read.” —Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith “A stunningly valuable legacy left to all of us by a great human being. I miss him so.” —Kurt Vonnegut Carl Sagan's prophetic vision of the tragic resurgence of fundamentalism and the hope-filled potential of the next great development in human spirituality The late great astronomer and astrophysicist describes his personal search to understand the nature of the sacred in the vastness of the cosmos. Exhibiting a breadth of intellect nothing short of astounding, Sagan presents his views on a wide range of topics, including the likelihood of intelligent life on other planets, creationism and so-called intelligent design, and a new concept of science as "informed worship." Originally presented at the centennial celebration of the famous Gifford Lectures in Scotland in 1985 but never published, this book offers a unique encounter with one of the most remarkable minds of the twentieth century.
Thomas Reid (1710–1796) was one of the principal philosophers of the Scottish Enlightenment. A colleague and friend of David Hume and Adam Smith, in 1764 Reid succeeded Smith to the University of Glasgow’s Chair of Moral Philosophy. He is most famous for his work in epistemology, defending common sense (the exercise of our ordinary, inborn cognitive faculties) as the ultimate foundation of human knowledge. Reid was also an important contributor to the eighteenth-century debate on natural theology, that is, the inference from the evidence of purpose in nature to the existence and attributes of God. Although he never published a separate book on this subject, Reid did give regular lectures on natural theology at the University of Glasgow, of which several sets of student notes have survived. The notes edited, annotated, and published in this volume were from a student of Reid’s who attended his natural theology lectures in the spring of 1780. These lectures have important implications for the history of discussions on the relation between natural science and theology, culminating in the modern Intelligent Design debate. The Lectures on Natural Theology were not included in the ten-volume Edinburgh Edition of Reid’s collected works. Moreover, while two earlier editions of these lectures exist, both contain serious mistakes of transcription and annotation. For these reasons, this carefully revised edition of this important text fills an important gap in the literature. James A. Barham, PhD, received his BA in Classics from the University of Texas at Austin in 1972, and his MA in History of Science from Harvard University in 1976. In 2011, he received his PhD in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Notre Dame (Indiana). Jake Akins did archival research for John West’s The Magician's Twin: C. S. Lewis on Science, Scientism, and Society, to which he also contributed a chapter. With a background in political science and theology, he has a particular interest in the philosophy of science and the medieval worldview.
This book, first published in the U.K. by T&T Clark, expands on the authors' prestigious Glasgow Gifford Lectures of 1995-6. Brooke and Cantor herein examine the many different ways in which the relationship between science and religion has been presented throughout history. They contend that, in fact, neither science nor religion is reducible to some timeless "essence"--and they deftly criticize the various master-narratives that have been put forward in support of such "essentialist" theses. Along the way, they repeatedly demolish the clichés so typical of popular histories of the science and religion debate, demonstrating the impossibility of reducing these debates to a single narrative, or of narrowing this relationship to a paradigm of conflict.
Originally published in 1949 and then revised in 1979, this comprehensive introduction to systematic theology has well served countless students and pastors for more than half a century. In this paperback edition it will continue to instruct serious students of the Bible and theology. Following two introductory chapters delineating the nature, necessity, possibility, and divisions of theology, Henry Clarence Thiessen systematically address a wide range of subjects in eight major sections -- Theism, Bibliology, Theology, Anthropology, Soteriology, Ecclesiology, Angelology, and Eschatology. Also included are two specialized indexes for further study -- an Index of Subjects and an Index of Scriptural References that includes over 4,000 entries.