Turning points in natural theology from Bacon to Darwin

Sample

Jeffrey P. Greenman & Timothy Larsen

"This collection of essays by prominent scholars surveys the ways in which the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, has been understood and appropriated from biblical times until today. With chapters devoted to major Christian thinkers such as Aquinas, Barth, Calvin, Luther, Maimonides, and Wesley, the writers explore ways the Decalogue has provided theological, ethical, moral, and devotional reflection throughout many facets of religious thought. The pieces reveal both the continuities in interpretation through the centuries as well as ways in which individual theologians departed from reigning readings to develop new directions"--

Sample

Martin H. Krieger

"Krieger revisits ideas from his now infamous article published some thirty years ago in Science magazine. At the same time, Krieger offers an analysis of the tensions within which design operates - between perfection and contingency, between wholes and parts, between the talk we make about the world and the world itself. He is asking us to explore how designed works affect us, and why we feel so strongly about them.". "Krieger takes design - in architecture, landscape, interiors, engineering, and systems and computer science - to be modeled by traditional theological and artistic problems. And here, he claims, design has traditionally been a redesign of nature. For nature is for us - as Durkheim would describe it - a totem."--BOOK JACKET.

Sample

Otto Kaiser

The present volume contains writings by the renowned Marburg Old Testament scholar Otto Kaiser on the theology, anthropology and ethics of the Wisdom of Jesus, Son of Sirach (Ecclasisticus), and of the Book of Ecclesiastes (Kohelet), and their background in the history of ideas and of theology. In addition there is an essay on topical problems of the history of salvation and one on present-day problems of the belief in eternal life.

Sample

Tony Milligan

"Civil disobedience is a form of protest with a special standing with regards to the law that sets it apart from political violence. Such principled law-breaking has been witnessed in recent years over climate change, economic strife, and the treatment of animals. Civil disobedience is examined here in the context of contemporary political activism, in the light of classic accounts by Thoreau, Tolstoy, and Gandhi to call for a broader attitude towards what civil disobedience involves. The question of violence is discussed, arguing that civil disobedience need only be aspirationally non-violent and that although some protests do not clearly constitute law-breaking they may render people liable to arrest. For example, while there may not be violence against persons, there may be property damage, as seen in raids upon animal laboratories. Such forms of militancy raise ethical and legal questions. Arguing for a less restrictive theory of civil disobedience, the book will be a valuable resource for anyone studying social movements and issues of political philosophy, social justice, and global ethics."--Publisher's website.