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The Oxford Handbook of Jeremiah (Oxford Handbooks)
by Louis Stulman and Edward SilverThe Book of Jeremiah is one of the longest, most complex and influential writings in the Hebrew Bible. It comprises poetic oracles, prose sermons, and narratives of the prophet, as well as laments, symbolic actions, and utterances of hope from one of the most turbulent periods in the history of ancient Judah and Israel. Written by some of the most influential contemporary biblical interpreters today, The Oxford Handbook of Jeremiah offers compelling new readings of the text informed by a rich variety of methodological approaches and theoretical frameworks. In presenting discussions of the Book of Jeremiah in terms of its historical and cultural contexts of origins, textual and literary history, major internal themes, reception history, and significance for a number of key political issues, The Handbook examines the fascinating literary tradition of the Book of Jeremiah while also surveying recent scholarship. The result is a synthetic anthology that offers a significant contribution to the field as well as an indispensable resource for scholars and non-specialists alike.
Christian Mysticism and Incarnational Theology: Between Transcendence and Immanence (Contemporary Theological Explorations in Mysticism)
by Louise Nelstrop and Simon D. PodmoreThis book examines the relationship between transcendence and immanence within Christian mystical and apophatic writings. Original essays from a range of leading, established, and emerging scholars in the field focus on the roles of language, signs, and images, and consider how mystical theology might contribute to contemporary reflection on the Word incarnate. This collection of essays re-examines works from such canonical figures as Eckhart, Augustine, Plotinus, Pseudo-Dionysius, Nicolas of Cusa, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Julian of Norwich, along with the philosophical thought of Iris Murdoch, Jacques Lacan, and Martin Heidegger, and the contemporary phenomena of the Emerging Church. Presenting new readings of key ideas in mystical theology, and renewed engagement with the visionary and the everyday, the therapeutic and the transformative, these essays question how we might think about what may lie between transcendence and immanence.
Original Sin and the Evolution of Sexual Difference (Oxford Theology and Religion Monographs)
by Megan Loumagne UlishneyOriginal Sin and the Evolution of Sexual Difference develops an interdisciplinary conversation between evolutionary biology, feminist philosophy, and theology in order to illuminate the entanglement of Christian thinking about original sin with theologies of sexual difference. It then assesses the opportunities for rethinking original sin and its implications for theologies of sexual difference in light of developments in evolutionary biology and feminist theology and philosophy. Despite some resistances in the present age to conceptions of both original sin and meaningful sexual differences, this study argues that both can provide essential insights that help to make sense of some of the features of human life in the twenty-first century, especially the stubborn persistence of inequality, poverty, environmental degradation, and the pernicious patterns of sexual violence and abuse that have been uncovered by the #MeToo movement. To this end, Megan Loumagne Ulishney marshals resources from a variety of places-Augustine of Hippo, feminist theology, the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis, John Paul II, and a new group of feminist philosophers known as the New Feminist Materialists-to develop an analysis of original sin and sexual difference that is grounded in both scientific and theological insights about creaturely life. The project cultivates a sense of wonder at the diversity and unpredictability of human biology, a value for the role of creativity in the human participation that partially shapes our ongoing evolution, and humility about the extent to which we can predict and control the future of the evolution of our species. It illuminates the interdependencies that define creaturely life, the persistent entanglement of nature and culture, the centrality of desire to human identity and behaviour, and the role played by biology in the transmission of sin. It develops a vision of material life as evolving, generative, and imbued with activity, but also as simultaneously infected with sin and saturated with the divine.
Original Sin and the Evolution of Sexual Difference (Oxford Theology and Religion Monographs)
by Megan Loumagne UlishneyOriginal Sin and the Evolution of Sexual Difference develops an interdisciplinary conversation between evolutionary biology, feminist philosophy, and theology in order to illuminate the entanglement of Christian thinking about original sin with theologies of sexual difference. It then assesses the opportunities for rethinking original sin and its implications for theologies of sexual difference in light of developments in evolutionary biology and feminist theology and philosophy. Despite some resistances in the present age to conceptions of both original sin and meaningful sexual differences, this study argues that both can provide essential insights that help to make sense of some of the features of human life in the twenty-first century, especially the stubborn persistence of inequality, poverty, environmental degradation, and the pernicious patterns of sexual violence and abuse that have been uncovered by the #MeToo movement. To this end, Megan Loumagne Ulishney marshals resources from a variety of places-Augustine of Hippo, feminist theology, the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis, John Paul II, and a new group of feminist philosophers known as the New Feminist Materialists-to develop an analysis of original sin and sexual difference that is grounded in both scientific and theological insights about creaturely life. The project cultivates a sense of wonder at the diversity and unpredictability of human biology, a value for the role of creativity in the human participation that partially shapes our ongoing evolution, and humility about the extent to which we can predict and control the future of the evolution of our species. It illuminates the interdependencies that define creaturely life, the persistent entanglement of nature and culture, the centrality of desire to human identity and behaviour, and the role played by biology in the transmission of sin. It develops a vision of material life as evolving, generative, and imbued with activity, but also as simultaneously infected with sin and saturated with the divine.
Hungarian Catholic Intellectuals in Contemporary Romania: Reforming Apostles (Contemporary Anthropology of Religion)
by Marc Roscoe LoustauSet against the backdrop of the rise of right-wing Christian nationalism in Eastern Europe, this book declares that Catholic theologians ought to be understood and studied as intellectuals: socially and historically situated creators of national cultural traditions. While the Romanian government funds thriving schools for the country’s Hungarian minority, NGOs founded by Transylvanian Hungarians continue to organize volunteers to supplement this formal pedagogy. These volunteers understand themselves to be reviving a national tradition of “serving the people” by educating the region’s rural Hungarian populace. While this book is about the challenges Catholic educators face in teaching villagers, it is just as much about their new effort to call groups of volunteers from across the border in Hungary to teach alongside them. In these encounters, Transylvanian Hungarian educators remake their intellectual tradition, especially ideas about the basis of pedagogical authority, the ethical character of the nation, and the social location of selfhood. When contemporary Catholic intellectuals urge teachers to manifest their national self-consciousness, they carry with them the assumption that selfhood emerges where humans collaborate with God. While Transylvanian Hungarian intellectuals are enmeshed in constant competition, by focusing on contemporary theologians New Magyar Apostles unmasks the struggle over the nature of divine presence that animates this revival of a Christian national tradition of intellectual service.
Denys the Areopagite (Outstanding Christian Thinkers)
by Andrew LouthAndrew Louth examines all the traditions on which Denys' work draws: the Fourth Century Greek theologians, pagan philosophy and Syrian Christian thought. The corpus of Denys the Areopagite appeared in the sixth century and have since been deeply influential on Christian thinking both in East and West. Who their author was remains a mystery but in this book Professor Louth documents and comments on his compelling vision of the beauty of God's world and his revelation, together with his profound awareness of the ultimate mystery of the unknowable God who utterly transcends all being.
Early Christian Writings: The Apostolic Fathers (Penguin Classics)
by Andrew LouthThe writings in this volume cast a glimmer of light upon the emerging traditions and organization of the infant church, during an otherwise little-known period of its development. A selection of letters and small-scale theological treatises from a group known as the Apostolic Fathers, several of whom were probably disciples of the Apostles, they provide a first-hand account of the early Church and outline a form of early Christianity still drawing on the theology and traditions of its parent religion, Judaism. Included here are the first Epistle of Bishop Clement of Rome, an impassioned plea for harmony; The Epistle of Polycarp; The Epistle of Barnabas; The Didache; and the Seven Epistles written by Ignatius of Antioch - among them his moving appeal to the Romans that they grant him a martyr's death.
The Origins Of The Christian Mystical Tradition: From Plato To Denys (PDF)
by Andrew LouthOrigins of the Christian Mystical Tradition: From Plato to Denys
Selected Essays, Volume I: Studies in Patristics
by Prof Andrew LouthTaken together, these two volumes collect seventy-five essays written by Professor Andrew Louth over a forty-year period. Louth's contribution to scholarship and theology has always been significant, and these essays have been collected from journals and edited collections, many of which are difficult to access, and are here made available over two thought-provoking and wide-ranging volumes. Volume I focuses on a variety of topics in Patristics, or early Christian studies. In these essays, Louth discusses early Christian thinkers from the early second century through to Photios of Constantinople in the east (in the tenth century) and Thomas Aquinas in the west (in the thirteenth century). Constant figures who appear at the heart of these volumes are Maximos the Confessor (c.580 - 662) and John of Damascus (676-749).
Selected Essays, Volume I: Studies in Patristics
by Prof Andrew LouthTaken together, these two volumes collect seventy-five essays written by Professor Andrew Louth over a forty-year period. Louth's contribution to scholarship and theology has always been significant, and these essays have been collected from journals and edited collections, many of which are difficult to access, and are here made available over two thought-provoking and wide-ranging volumes. Volume I focuses on a variety of topics in Patristics, or early Christian studies. In these essays, Louth discusses early Christian thinkers from the early second century through to Photios of Constantinople in the east (in the tenth century) and Thomas Aquinas in the west (in the thirteenth century). Constant figures who appear at the heart of these volumes are Maximos the Confessor (c.580 - 662) and John of Damascus (676-749).
Selected Essays, Volume II: Studies in Theology
by Prof Andrew LouthTaken together, these two volumes collect seventy-five essays written by Professor Andrew Louth over a forty-year period. Louth's contribution to scholarship and theology has always been significant, and these essays have been collected from journals and edited collections, many of which are difficult to access, and are here made available over two thought-provoking and wide-ranging volumes. Volume II collects essays on a variety of theological topics, arranged chronologically, showing the development of Louth's thought since 1978. Throughout this collection the nature of 'theology', as it is understood within Orthodox tradition, is a constant concern. These essays offer distinctive reflections on categories — such as 'development of doctrine' — that have become foundational in modern western thought but which must be viewed rather differently from an Orthodox perspective. The legacy of modern Russian Orthodox thought — especially the key figures of the twentieth century Russian diaspora — is under constant consideration, and forms a constant dialogue partner.
Selected Essays, Volume II: Studies in Theology
by Prof Andrew LouthTaken together, these two volumes collect seventy-five essays written by Professor Andrew Louth over a forty-year period. Louth's contribution to scholarship and theology has always been significant, and these essays have been collected from journals and edited collections, many of which are difficult to access, and are here made available over two thought-provoking and wide-ranging volumes. Volume II collects essays on a variety of theological topics, arranged chronologically, showing the development of Louth's thought since 1978. Throughout this collection the nature of 'theology', as it is understood within Orthodox tradition, is a constant concern. These essays offer distinctive reflections on categories — such as 'development of doctrine' — that have become foundational in modern western thought but which must be viewed rather differently from an Orthodox perspective. The legacy of modern Russian Orthodox thought — especially the key figures of the twentieth century Russian diaspora — is under constant consideration, and forms a constant dialogue partner.
Diversity and Dissent: Negotiating Religious Difference in Central Europe, 1500-1800 (Austrian and Habsburg Studies #11)
by Howard Louthan Gary B. Cohen Franz A. J. SzaboEarly modern Central Europe was the continent’s most decentralized region politically and its most diverse ethnically and culturally. With the onset of the Reformation, it also became Europe’s most religiously divided territory and potentially its most explosive in terms of confessional conflict and war. Focusing on the Holy Roman Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, this volume examines the tremendous challenge of managing confessional diversity in Central Europe between 1500 and 1800. Addressing issues of tolerance, intolerance, and ecumenism, each chapter explores a facet of the complex dynamic between the state and the region’s Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Utraquist, and Jewish communities. The development of religious toleration—one of the most debated questions of the early modern period—is examined here afresh, with careful consideration of the factors and conditions that led to both confessional concord and religious violence.
Women in Islam: Reflections on Historical and Contemporary Research
by Terence LovatThe role of women in Islamic societies, not to mention in the religion itself, is a defining issue. It is also one that remains resistant to universal dogma, with a wide range of responses to women’s social roles across the Islamic world. Reflecting this heterogeneity, the editor of this volume has assembled the latest research on the issue, which combines contemporary with historical data. The material comes from around the world as well as from Muslim and non-Muslim researchers. It takes in work from majority Muslim nations such as Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Palestine, Tunisia and Turkey, as well as countries with troubled interfaith relations such as India and Israel. Nations with minority Muslim populations such as France, the UK, Canada and Australia, are also represented. The work also features varying Islamic sub-groups such as the two main ones, Sunni and Shi’a, as well as less well known populations such as the Ismaili Muslims. In each case, the work is underpinned by the very latest socio-theological insights and empirical data.
Reconciling Islam, Christianity and Judaism: Islam’s Special Role in Restoring Convivencia (SpringerBriefs in Religious Studies)
by Terence Lovat Robert CrottyAt the present time, when so-called Islamic radicalism, terrorism and Jihadism occupy major media space, with Islam often depicted as the main culprit, the book attempts a tour de force. It proposes that Islam is as much victim as culprit in the history that has led to the current hostility. This is because the common claims of both mainstream and radical Islam that Islam represents the high point of the Abrahamic tradition, and therefore a purification of Judaism and Christianity, have been largely ignored, misunderstood or blatantly rejected by these faiths and therefore by ‘the West’ in general. This rejection has effectively rendered Islam as the poor cousin, if not the illegitimate sibling, of the tradition. In turn, this has created long-term resentment and hostility within Islam as well as robbed the ‘Judaeo-Christian West’ of a rich, inter-faith understanding of the wider Abrahamic tradition. The book explores these claims through textual, historical and theological analyses, proposing that many of them stand up better to critical scrutiny than has been commonly acknowledged. It further proposes that seeing Islam in this way has potential to re-awaken its self-understanding as a leader of accord among the Abrahamic faiths, of the kind that characterized the era of Convivencia when, in medieval Spain, Islam constructed and contributed to advanced civilizations characterized by relatively harmonious co-existence between Muslims, Christians and Jews. The book focuses on the role that a more respected and self-confident Islam could play in forging enhanced inter-faith relations in a world that desperately needs them as it struggles to understand and deal with modern and particularly vicious forms of radical Islamism.
The History of Islam: Revelation, Reconstruction or Both? (SpringerBriefs in Religious Studies)
by Terence Lovat Amir MoghadamThis book applies philosophical and critical textual scholarship to the traditional Islamic narrative in an attempt to distinguish between its historical and interpretive elements. It allows the narrative to be preserved with due respect for its significance and distinctiveness, but in a way that frees it from the ease with which it can slip into the hands of literalists and fundamentalists in order to serve a purpose which is at odds with its original spirit and intention. When radical Islamists use social media to try and convert young followers to a Jihadist cause, they refer often to the narrative about the Prophet, the original Islamic community (Ummah), and the holy book (Qur’an). The references usually imply that these are under threat by infidels, either non-Muslim Westerners or Muslims themselves who follow allegedly errant forms of Islam. The narrative itself is, however, never questioned; it is taken as merely factual with every word to be taken literally, including words that appear intolerant of difference and given to violence. As such, it can serve well the forms of fundamentalism that lie at the heart of radical Islamism and Jihadism. Because of a shortage of critical scholarship about Islam’s central narrative, the radical Islamist understanding of it differs too little from that of mainstream Muslims. Neither tends to take sufficient account of the context of the writing, its original purpose or the many interpretive elements that have been overlain. This makes it difficult for mainstream Islamic authorities to counter effectively the radical Islamist discourse or to distinguish moderate and liberal forms of religious practice from radical breakaway forms. In turn, this causes confusion among Muslims, who know the radical Islamists are in error but find it hard to say just why, and even greater confusion and angst among non-Muslims, for whom the allegation that all of Islam is inherently violent and to be feared is clearly being heard by an increasing number. This book sets out to address this problem by applying forms of scholarship that can preserve the best of the Islamic narrative while, at the same time, illustrating just how errant is the radical Islamist understanding of it.
International Research Handbook on Values Education and Student Wellbeing
by Terence Lovat Ron Toomey Neville ClementInformed by the most up-to-date research from around the world, as well as examples of good practice, this handbook analyzes values education in the context of a range of school-based measures associated with student wellbeing. These include social, emotional, moral and spiritual growth – elements that seem to be present where intellectual advancement and academic achievement are being maximized. This text comes as ‘values education’ widens in scope from being concerned with morality, ethics, civics and citizenship to a broader definition synonymous with a holistic approach to education in general. This expanded purview is frequently described as pedagogy relating to ‘values’ and ‘wellbeing’. This contemporary understanding of values education, or values and wellbeing pedagogy, fits well with recent neuroscience research. This has shown that notions of cognition, or intellect, are far more intertwined with social and emotional growth than earlier educational paradigms have allowed for. In other words, the best laid plans about the technical aspects of pedagogy are bound to fail unless the growth of the whole person – social, emotional, moral, spiritual and intellectual, is the pedagogical target. Teachers and educationalists will find that this handbook provides evidence, culled from both research and practice, of the beneficial effects of such a ‘values and wellbeing’ pedagogy.
Turkey Since 1970: Politics, Economics and Society
by D. LovattContemporary Turkey often appears to be juggling a plethora of agenda issues (radical Islam, terrorism, separatism, enemies without, enemies within, corruption, inflation, mafia-government links and natural disasters) with military interventions of varying degrees and short-lived, wobbly coalition governments. The contributors to Turkey Since 1970 offer clear and accessible background information to events that have aided and hindered the country's development.
The Evasive Text: Zechariah 1-8 and the Frustrated Reader (The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies)
by Mark Cameron LoveThis work employs an eclectic mix of structuralist and post-structuralist theories in a doomed attempt to discover the symbolic logic at work in Zechariah 1-8's surreal narrative world. Lengthy analyses of Zechariah's intra- and intertextual logic, or lack thereof, are presented. It is finally concluded that Zechariah lacks a concrete symbolic logic, defies grammatical conventions and is 'unreadable' as it stands-and always was this way. One suggestion is that it was the intent of the author, conceived of in a postmodern way, to produce such a work. It is finally concluded that the 'post-prophetic' age of Hebrew literature has much in common with the postmodern.
The Bible for Grown-Ups: A New Look at the Good Book
by Simon Loveday‘Loveday’s case is that the mantle of historical truth and divine authority has placed upon the Bible an intolerable weight, crushing it as a creative work of immense imaginative and inspirational power. His argument is both fascinating and persuasive.’ Matthew Parris The Bible for Grown-Ups neither requires, nor rejects, belief. It sets out to help intelligent adults make sense of the Bible – a book that is too large to swallow whole, yet too important in our history and culture to spit out. Why do the creation stories in Genesis contradict each other? Did the Exodus really happen? Was King David a historical figure? Why is Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus so different from Luke’s? Why was St Paul so rude about St Peter? Every Biblical author wrote for their own time, and their own audience. In short, nothing in the Bible is quite what it seems. Literary critic Simon Loveday’s book – a labour of love that has taken over a decade to write – is a thrilling read, for Christians and anyone else, which will overturn everything you thought you knew about the Good Book.
The Rise of the Laity in Evangelical Protestantism
by Deryck LovegroveThis comprehensive investigation into the involvement of ordinary Christians in Church activities and in anti-clerical dissent, explores a phenomenon stretching from Britain and Germany to the Americas and beyond. It considers how evangelicalism, as an anti-establishmentarian and profoundly individualistic movement, has allowed the traditionally powerless to become enterprising, vocal, and influential in the religious arena and in other areas of politics and culture.
The Rise of the Laity in Evangelical Protestantism
by Deryck W. LovegroveThis comprehensive investigation into the involvement of ordinary Christians in Church activities and in anti-clerical dissent, explores a phenomenon stretching from Britain and Germany to the Americas and beyond. It considers how evangelicalism, as an anti-establishmentarian and profoundly individualistic movement, has allowed the traditionally powerless to become enterprising, vocal, and influential in the religious arena and in other areas of politics and culture.
Make Your Own Magic
by Amanda LovelaceFrom the bestselling author of the princess saves herself in this one comes an accessible guide to welcoming magic into your life, perfect for beginner witches and the magic-curious alike.As witchcraft grows ever more popular, there are countless introductions and paths into magical practice to choose from - so many that you might not know where to begin. When you're just getting started, it's easy to be intimidated or discouraged or to feel that there's no place for you in the craft.With make your own magic, amanda lovelace aims to change that. This inviting beginner's guide shows that magic doesn't have to be fancy, time-consuming, or one-size-fits-all. It introduces the tenets of witchcraft so that you can develop your own practice and relationship with magic in whatever way works for you. With simple explanations, twenty all-new inspiring poems, words of encouragement, magical journaling prompts, and more, this book sweeps away the gatekeeping and offers you the tools needed to begin building a strong, long-lasting practice focused on self-love.
Sustaining Preachers and Preaching: A Practical Guide
by George Lovell Neil RichardsonA textbook on preaching from an ecumenical perspective, covering the foundations and practice of preaching.
The Book of Kings and Exilic Identity: 1 and 2 Kings as a Work of Political Historiography (The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies)
by Nathan LovellNathan Lovell proposes that 1 and 2 Kings might be read as a work of written history, produced with the explicit purpose of shaping the communal identity of its first readers in the Babylonian exile. By drawing on sociological approaches to the role historiography plays in the construction of political identity, Lovell argues the book of Kings is intended to reconstruct a sense of Israelite identity in the context of these losses, and that the book of Kings moves beyond providing a reason for the exile in Israel's history, and beyond even connecting its exilic audience to that history. The book recalls the past in order to demonstrate what it means to be Israel in the (exilic) present, and to encourage hope for the Israelite nation in the future. After developing a reading strategy for 1–2 Kings that treats the book as a coherent narrative, Lovell examines the construction of Israelite identity within Kings under the headings of covenant, nationhood, land, and rule. In each case he suggests that the narrative of the book creates room for a genuine but temporary expression of Israelite identity in exile: genuine to show that it remains possible for Israel to be Yahweh's people during the exile, but temporary to encourage hope for a future restoration.