Harm's way

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Lisa Sowle Cahill

This book endorses feminist critiques of gender, yet upholds the insight of traditional Christianity that sex, commitment and parenthood are fulfilling human relations. Their unity is a positive ideal, though not an absolute norm. Women and men should enjoy equal personal respect and social power. In reply to feminist critics of oppressive gender and sex norms and to communitarian proponents of Christian morality, Cahill argues that effective intercultural criticism of injustice requires a modest defence of moral objectivity. She thus adopts a critical realism as its moral foundation, drawing on Aristotle and Aquinas. Moral judgment should be based on reasonable, practical, prudent and cross-culturally nuanced reflection on human experience. This is combined with a New Testament model of community, centred on solidarity, compassion and inclusion of the economically or socially marginalised. (Source: Cambridge University Press)

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Patrick Grant

"This book makes an original contribution to the study of modern Northern Ireland by examining the complex relationships among religion, literature and ethnicity since 1967. Patrick Grant focuses on a contradiction within sectarianism between the Christian injunction to love one's enemies, and the scapegoating, stereotyping and mirror oppositions that result from an annexation of religion to ethnic exclusivism. In general, a 'post-critical' view of religion is offered, welcoming the critique provided by secularism and maintaining that the varieties of imagination - whether literary or religious - can be liberative and mutually supporting."--Jacket.

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Stephen Kendrick

If God is the greatest mystery of them all, then why not, in pursuit of God, consult the greatest detective of them all? In this imaginative and surprisingly profound book, Stephen Kendrick reveals Sherlock Holmes as spiritual guide. Drawing on the teachings of Christianity, Buddhism, and Judaism--as well as a host of thinkers as varied as Albert Einstein, Gandhi, and Vincent van Gogh--Kendrick explores the stories of Sherlock Holmes and finds remarkably prescient religious insights. He shows us the link between careful observation of clues and the Buddhist concept of "Bare Attention." He illuminates the parallel between the great sleuth's pursuit of justice and God's actions on the scene of the first murder, when Cain slew Abel. And in the detective's open, engaged mind, Kendrick finds a model for uniting the principles of science with a sincere spiritual quest. The result is a book of inspiration for the modern, skeptical searcher--and an entertaining work that sheds new light on the methods of the world's greatest detective.

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Shreedhar Gautam

Comprises articles on Nepali literature, works of Mulk Raj Anand, Indic writer in English, and American philosophy and multiculturism.