Culture of peace

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David E. Klemm and William Schweiker

"What does it mean that understanding is the primary mode of human being in the world? How can new symbols refigure human temporal possibilities and narrative understandings? How do we interpret life, and what can be claimed as "truth"? These and related questions are explored by a collection of distinguished scholars from a variety of disciplines in Meanings in Texts and Actions. These essays constitute a critical encounter with the philosophy of Paul Ricoeur, who - along with Hans-Georg Gadamer - was largely responsible for the postwar emergence of a new hermeneutics. Having engaged in critical debates with thinkers in virtually every humanistic discipline, Ricoeur has managed to create a conversation among them, as this collection attests." "Volume contributors - representatives of a range of disciplines including literary theory, theology and religious studies, comparative literature, film studies, history, political philosophy, ethics, and global studies - take up Ricoeur's questions and pose questions of their own in return. In so doing, they work toward new formulations in our thinking that address the contemporary challenges of deconstruction and postmodernism and pay particular attention to theology and its relation to humanistic culture."--BOOK JACKET.

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[edited by] Ronald Barnett and Anne Griffin

This study questions whether it is possible to identify a justified, secure and coherent base for our knowledge of the world and of ourselves. Science no longer enjoys an unquestioned pre-eminence in providing objective knowledge, and the social improvement brought about through rational thought has been recently attacked by postmodernism. Higher education is therefore placed in a precarious position, based as it is on the acquisition of knowledge and understanding. This book explores the various dimensions of this crisis of confidence in science and higher education, showing how thinkers in the various disciplines are reacting to this challenge, and how they are re-evaluating the basis of their forms of enquiry.

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Anthony Levi

"In this new survey of the development of European intellectual culture between about 1300 and 1535, Anthony Levi offers a fresh view of the Renaissance and the Reformation, calling for a reassessment of the nature of both. Through a radical and detailed examination of the significant intellectual, spiritual, and ideological developments across Europe during this period, Levi disputes the discontinuities commonly understood to explain and defend the events we term the "Renaissance" and the "Reformation." He argues that the renewed cult of the literary, visual, and educational norms of classical antiquity were a consequence - not the essence or cause - of the Renaissance. Further, the Reformation emerged from a cultural movement that neither constituted a historical break nor led to the catastrophic religious clashes of the sixteenth century. He offers a revisionist account of the collapse of scholastic intellectual systems and traces its course."--BOOK JACKET.

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K.C. Abraham and Bernadette Mbuy-Beya

The Third General Assembly of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians, meeting in Nairobi in 1992, took a fresh look at the changing context of the Third World. Theologians in Nairobi firmly declared that third-world theology should be decisively shaped by the spirituality of the marginalized - indigenous people, women, minjung, dalits, and other minorities. Their creative and life-affirming spirituality is at the very center of their lives and struggles. Spirituality of the Third World explores the meaning of spirituality, its biblical roots, its relation to human existence, how it patterns a vision and enriches faith, and how it celebrates life. This spirituality is formed of faith, struggle, and hope - the cry for life from the poor of all continents. Part I describes the changing context of the Third World, with a special focus on North-South relationships. Part II elaborates different forms of Third World spiritualities with origins in South and North America, Africa, and Asia. Part III roots these spiritualities biblically and explores how they enrich theological understanding and sustain Christian life.