Issue: Divine revelation

Every Life is on Fire: How Thermodynamics Explains the Origins of Living Things

Every Life is on Fire: How Thermodynamics Explains the Origins of Living Things

Posted by | Nov 9, 2020 | |

For centuries, the scientific question of life’s origins has confounded us. But in Every Life Is on Fire, physicist Jeremy England argues that the answer has been under our noses the whole time, deep within the laws of thermodynamics. England explains how, counterintuitively, the very same forces that tend to tear things apart assembled the first living systems.
But how life began isn’t just a scientific question. We ask it because we want to know what it really means to be alive. So England, an ordained rabbi, uses his theory to examine how, if at all, science helps us find purpose in a vast and mysterious universe. — Amazon.co.uk

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Christian Wisdom: Desiring God and Learning in Love

Christian Wisdom: Desiring God and Learning in Love

Posted by | Oct 4, 2020 | |

What is Christian wisdom for living in the twenty-first century? Where is it to be found? How can it be learnt? In the midst of diverse religions and worldviews and the demands and complexities of our world, David Ford explores a Christian way of uniting love of wisdom with wisdom in love. Core elements are the ‘discernment of cries’, the love of God for God’s sake, interpretation of scripture, and the shaping of desire in faith. Case studies deal with inter-faith wisdom among Jews, Christians and Muslims, universities as centres of wisdom as well as knowledge and know-how and the challenge of learning disabilities. Throughout, there is an attempt to do justice to the premodern, modern and postmodern while grappling with scripture, tradition and the cries of the world today. Ford opens up the rich resources of Christianity in engaging with the issues and urgencies of contemporary life.

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The New Spirituality: An Introduction to Progressive Belief in the Twenty-first Century

The New Spirituality: An Introduction to Progressive Belief in the Twenty-first Century

Posted by | Sep 24, 2020 | |

Much attention has been given in recent writings about religion to fundamentalism and the ‘religious right’. But less attention has been given to their opposite – the emergence of a new generation of progressive religious thinkers and organisations on the ‘religious left’. The New Spirituality is one of the first books to give a comprehensive and authoritative account of this burgeoning progressive religious movement. It offers a clear and engaging analysis of the cultural roots, key ideas and organisational structures of this new faith, assessing its significance in the changing moral and religious landscape of contemporary western society. Gordon Lynch argues that we are witnessing the rise of a new religious ideology which reveres the natural world, connects religious faith with novel scientific theories, and has a forward-looking agenda for society’s transformation. Produced by one of Britain’s leading writers on the changing patterns of modern religion, The New Spirituality will be essential reading for students attempting to understand the shape of religious belief in the twenty-first century.

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Zero Theology: Escaping Belief through Catch-22s

Zero Theology: Escaping Belief through Catch-22s

Posted by | Sep 19, 2020 | |

In ZeroTheology, John Tucker argues that not only can one be a Christian without holding any traditional beliefs but that one can only be a Christian by getting out of religious belief altogether. Utilizing the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, John offers a way of escaping the belief/disbelief trap that explains why believers and unbelievers cannot understand each other and why neither understands the alternative religious path that the author promotes. Tucker addresses many of today’s most pressing religious questions and introduces his own: Why do evangelicals believe that homosexual fidelity is more harmful to marriage than heterosexual infidelity? Why are believers so bothered by science and so impressed by miracles? What if Sin and Grace are synonyms? What if Jesus is sinless in an ironic way? What is the difference between making judgments and passing judgment? Why does the literal versus metaphorical debate completely miss the point of religious language? Using Catch-22s, ZeroTheology offers a new way of looking at Christian religious life that emphasizes the non-reasonable transcendent choice over the perfectly reasonable choice of belief or unbelief.

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