Stories are everywhere around us, and they have played a part in the cultural evolution of homo sapiens. But they have a dark side, and we should take care that we are masters of our stories and not enslaved by them.
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Throughout history we have told ourselves stories to try and make sense of what it all means: our place in a small corner of one of billions of galaxies, at the end of billions of years of existence. In this new book Richard Holloway takes us on a personal, scientific and philosophical journey to explore what he believes the answers to the biggest of questions are. He examines what we know about the universe into which – without any choice in the matter – we are propelled at birth and from which we are expelled at death, the stories we have told about where we come from, and the stories we tell to get through this muddling experience of life.
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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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Being human isn’t easy. We might think that consciousness and free will give us control over our lives but our minds are unpredictable places. We are susceptible to forces we don’t understand. We are capable of inflicting immense cruelty on one another and yet we also have the capacity to be tender, to empathise, to feel. In his thought-provoking new book Richard Holloway holds a mirror up to the human condition. By drawing on a colourful and eclectic selection of writings from history, philosophy, science, poetry, theology and literature, Holloway shows us how we can stand up to the seductive power of the monster and draw closer to the fierce challenge of the saint.
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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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