Book categories

Social Philosophy of Vivekananda and Indian Nationalism

by Sebastian Velassery

2021

Among the galaxy of scholars, Swami Vivekananda stands out as a majestic tower of light who has given a new tempo to the building up of a new sense of nationalism in modern India. The uniqueness of Vivekananda was his endeavour to translate every ounce of Vedanta into a social living and was never a cold theoretician or an abstract metaphysician. He was aware that India's life is governed by her sovereign sense of the infnite and inclusiveness which nourished her national life and India has been a spiritual strength for her people, implanting the seeds that have continuously sprouted and flowered in her art, literature, religion, philosophy, science and politics. It is a civilization that should be seen, not as a closed system or as a finished product, but as a dynamic and unfolding proces...

How Science Can Help Us Live In Peace

Darwin, Einstein, Whitehead

by Markolf H. Niemz, Ph.D.; James D. Dunn, trans.

2018

Award-winning biophysicist Markolf H. Niemz puts into a nutshell what the top 3 scientists on earth have discovered. Charles Darwin: Animal and man are not two. Albert Einstein: Space and time are not two. Alfred N. Whitehead: The world and I are not two. The world we live in is non-dualistic. Nature is crying for peace, but we shut off foreign from native, poor from rich, others from ourselves. It is our concept of the self that stands in the way of peace. Based on Darwin's, Einstein's and Whitehead's scientific discoveries the author demonstrates how easily we mistake reality. There is neither a personal self nor an external, almighty God. Eternity, which most religious people hope for, does not begin at death. It is here and now—at the speed of light when all distances turn zero.This bo...

Because of Eve

Historical and Theological Survey of the Subjugation of Women in the Christian Tradition

by Joseph E. Early, Jr., Ph.D.

2022

Because of Eve is a thorough examination of how the Church and Christian men sought to define women and the roles women must play within the church, home, and society for more than two thousand years. The book examines the works of theologians, decrees of councils, canon law, statements of faith, and a myriad of other pronouncements that affected their generation--and the following generation's--beliefs concerning women. Each chapter considers the era in which these beliefs were voiced, as much of what was accepted as orthodoxy was reflected in or based on cultural beliefs. WORDS OF PRAISE and REVIEWS See news about the book and author at The Meeting House by Dwight A. Moody (2022 October) Babtist News Global (October 20th, 2023) This important study surveys the roles of women,...

Language, Reality, and Transcendence

An Essay on the Main Strands of Wittgenstein's Later Philosophy

by Ramesh Chandra Pradhan

2008

Language, Reality, and Transcendence deals with the later philosophy of Wittgenstein by delving into language, grammar, rule, self, world, culture, and value. Wittgenstein has given a comprehensive philosophy of man and the world and has dealt with the destiny of man by outlining the moral and the spiritual goals of human life. In this work, the nature of Wittgenstein's transcendent metaphysics of man and the ultimate reality has been outlined.

Christianity without the Cross

A History of Salvation in Oneness Pentecostalism

by Thomas A. Fudge

2003

Grounded in primary source research, this boldly revisionist book examines the doctrine of salvation in Oneness Pentecostalism (United Pentecostal Church) from its origins through its several developmental stages. The gradual rise of a literal interpretation of Acts 2.38 eliminated a tradition of doctrinal diversity within Oneness thought which regarded salvation as occurring at repentance prior to water and Spirit baptism. With this development a main link to the wider stream of evangelical Christianity was severed. The "water and Spirit" theology resulted in a form of Christianity which does not necessarily require the cross in any meaningful sense for salvation. This study recovers the lost theological tradition associated with important figures such as Howard A. Goss, A.D. Gurley, W.M....

Nothing New Under the Sun

An Introduction to Islam

by Paul Culp

2007

Islam draws more attention to itself with each passing day, but surprisingly few people know much about it, even in government, the media, education, and the Church. Nothing New Under the Sun is an accessible, up-to-date study of Islam’s past and present, with an acute analysis of its core logic and what that logic might mean for the future. Islam is a religion not just of scripture and tradition but also of community consensus, and it is not comprehensible without an examination of how that consensus is formed and the direction it is likely to take. Islam’s relationship to the West must also be understood in light of the contemporary Western religious climate - specifically the American one - which is failing badly as an alternative to the Islamist model. Nothing New Under the Sun dra...

What's Wrong With The Christian Right

by Jan G. Linn

2004

Silence may be golden, but not when it comes to the extremes of the Christian Right. That is why Jan Linn wrote his new book, What's Wrong With The Christian Right, just released by BrownWalker Press. As a former college and seminary teacher and author of ten previous books, Linn uses the Christian Right's own words and actions to show the extent to which it is trying to reshape both American politics and Christianity into its own image. The book describes in detail the agenda of the Christian Right, the tactics it employs, and the ways it plays loose with truth. It is also a call to action to everyone disturbed by the power and influence of the Christian Right. With careful documentation, this book exposes the extent to which the Christian Right is influencing American politics, who ...

The Paradox of the Good Bribe

A Discussion Defining and Protecting the Public Interest

by David J O'Regan

2020

What do Plato and the Bible tell us about bribery? Does it even matter? When it comes to ethical guidance on bribery should we look less to traditional wisdom and instead be seeking understanding and guidance primarily from modern sources? From economists with their talk of efficient markets, and from the critical theorists who focus on inequities in power relations? This book explores such questions in depth.Taking the form of a Platonic dialogue, the book contains a discussion of claims made for recognition of the positive aspects of bribery. This goes beyond the well-known "harmless" bribe - the facilitating or “grease” payment which encourages an official to speed up the performance of his or her existing duties, without additional favors. This type of baksheesh may be unattractive but...

Faith Physics

A New Theory of Everything

by Nathan V. Hoffman

2021

Faith Physics is a new Theory of Everything (ToE) combining ancient spiritual wisdom and modern quantum physics findings to deliver a belief system that is both intellectually sound and spiritually satisfying. It maintains an ineffable Supreme Consciousness is the catalyst of all material creation as a ‘great thought’ through pure white light in zero-point morphogenetic quantum fields. Faith Physics claims that consciousness is the cornerstone of base reality existing in a timeless state of now.By using the natural cause-and-effect laws of classical physics, the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics, and dark matter/energy, Faith Physics posits pure consciousness manifests physical creation in a remarkable myriad of forms. In the wave/particle duality paradigm revealed by quantum me...

Unbinding Christianity

Choosing the Values of Jesus over the Beliefs of the Church

by Jan G. Linn

2020

Unbinding Christianity is a book that will be good news for some readers while stretching others in uncomfortable ways. It begins with the premise that traditional Christian teaching is focused on right beliefs while the life and teachings of Jesus was all about right living. The book represents a fresh voice for Christians who struggle to accept traditional beliefs by assuring them that Jesus himself said much more about right values than he did right beliefs.The goal of this book is to unbind Christianity from the wrappings of creeds, doctrines, dogma, and beliefs in order to make room for an understanding of what it means to be Christian defined by values that invites unity among Christians without the need for conformity of beliefs.One of the important by-products of a values-based Chr...

Life Without Rights

Human Rights or Neighborly Love

by Birgit Berggrensson

2022

The topic of the book is the focus on rights, which has spread like wildfire above all in the Western part of the world since the Second World War and the impact this way of thinking has had on how we see our fellow human beings. The author sees rights focused thinking and neighborly love as opposites and does not think that the two are compatible. They are mutually exclusive. In other words a different way of thinking is called for, and this applies to all the things that we human beings feel we are entitled to and claim, starting with The Declaration of Human Rights and continuing to the right to a roof over one’s head; throughout the chapters of the book the author argues that we human beings do not have any rights at all, and how we instead have to take a closer look at the parts of r...

When The Rooster Crows

God, Suffering and Being In the World

by Vincent L. Perri

2023

This book closely examines our commonly held beliefs about human suffering, and offers unique insights into God's role in why we suffer. Dr. Perri critically examines what it means to be human from a Judeo-Christian perspective, and extrapolates from the work of Carl Gustav Jung showing a deeply complex development of human transcendence in human suffering. On an interpersonal level, Dr. Perri elaborates on the work of Martin Buber and Emanuel Levinas and shows how our suffering can be shared and lessened by our unconditionality and presence for the other. Scriptural passages are quoted from both the Hebrew and New Testament texts, and are used to depict the suffering of humankind as seen in the face of Job. It was this face, according to Perri, that Jesus saw in the faces of those He c...

GOD

A Psychological Assessment

by Gary M. Bakker

2013

What is God really like? What sort of personality does he have? What are his values and priorities? And who can best answer such questions? These are vital questions for anyone who wants to understand and please him, and so ensure an eternal future. But they are not philosophical or theological questions. They are about his psychology. Gary Bakker is a clinical psychologist with 30 years of experience at answering these questions. He has studied God's words and deeds (his self-report and his behavior), found evidence of 16 psychological characteristics of God, and from these, reports some surprising conclusions. For example, if God has what we would regard as a diagnosable psychological problem, can it be treated? The 16 features/chapters that lead to an overall diagnosis and conclus...

Nihilism-In-Tension

A Theology of Kenosis as a Response to Some Nihilistic Inclinations in the Context of Contemporary Slovakia

by Martin Sebo, S.J.

2017

One of the pastoral problems of religiosity in Slovakia today is that contemporary Christianity is pervaded by nihil-inclinations. Such inclinations manifest themselves in the loss of orientation and meaning, and a disinterest in Christianity, which has by and large remained on a doctrinal, moralistic, and ritual level without offering a constructive faith response to the 'signs of the times'. This dissertation argues that nihilism is not an entirely negative or morose concept that leaves behind a void or abyss without values, rendering this world meaningless. Nihilism as such is not an absolute (demonizing) danger; rather, it is the failure to adequately engage it that constitutes the pro-nihilizing threat. My analysis of nihilism begins with Nietzsche. In analyzing his texts, I propose m...

Virtues That Matter

Christian Kindness as an Antidote to Cultural Crudeness

by William G. Covington Jr.

2019

Cultural critics frequently point out how rude people have become. The need for patience, consideration and kindness is the mindset that provides the antidote to this cultural dysfunction. Christian virtues that enhance the quality of life for everyone, including both the initiators and receivers, are discussed in this book. Each chapter includes a reflection section that helps one apply the principles covered.Is it credible to claim that any reader of a book who applies the contents could enhance the quality of his own life as well as that of others with whom he interacts? This book examines issues that hold the potential for such direct far-reaching aims. Rather than curse the darkness of uncivil behavior in culture, this book shines light in providing an antidote that enhances the perso...

Ordaining Reality Made Easy

A Guide for Creating the Future

by Joseph E. Donlan, Ph.D

2009

Many people believe in the Power of Positive Thinking, but no one has succeeded in credibly explaining how mere thoughts can tangibly influence future occurrences. To explain the connection, this book presents a new paradigm of nature and couples it with a convincing explanation of how our right brain hemispheres have a unique ability to tap into the hidden domain of the metaphysical. To support this premise, the reader is lightly exposed to the divergent worlds of physics and metaphysics and is then introduced to a new view of nature that undeniably links mind to matter. Important to its charge, the new perspective makes the case that the future can only be created with thoughts. In the final analysis, the author brings his readers through the necessary steps to put this knowledge to work...

The Hidden Pattern

A Patternist Philosophy of Mind

by Ben Goertzel

2006

The Hidden Pattern presents a novel philosophy of mind, intended to form a coherent conceptual framework within which it is possible to understand the diverse aspects of mind and intelligence in a unified way. The central concept of the philosophy presented is the concept of “pattern”: minds and the world they live in and co-create are viewed as patterned systems of patterns, evolving over time, and various aspects of subjective experience and individual and social intelligence are analyzed in detail in this light. Many of the ideas presented are motivated by recent research in artificial intelligence and cognitive science, and the author’s own AI research is discussed in moderate detail in one chapter. However, the scope of the book is broader than this, incorporating insights from...

Should Christianity Abandon the Doctrine of the Trinity?

by Michael A. Barber

2006

This is a highly controversial exposition of a doctrine which has dominated Christianity for two thousand years. The book takes apart, piece by piece, the very foundation that so many religions use to support the belief that there are three persons in one God. It analyses the major scriptural references pointed to in Trinity support texts, and examines them in the light of biblical context and by original-language comparisons. World-renowned authorities on biblical Hebrew and Greek are sought for their views on these key scriptures. This is a compelling book which turns the very foundation of Christianity onto its head.

Universal Theory

A Model for the Theory of Everything

by Mohsen Kermanshahi

2007

The intention of this work is to inform the non-specialist and the curious, who are intrigued by finding deeper understandings of our existence. With a clear, easily comprehensible and non-technical language, Universal Theory invites the layperson to join in the most exciting non-fictional adventure. It also welcomes the scientists who have reached roadblocks in their investigations and are willing to take a leap into the unexplored and often avoided areas of study. Universal Theory follows quantum mechanics' lead to challenge the boundaries between known physics and the unknown realm. "A new way of thinking or change in perspective may be needed to achieve a Theory of Everything and a true understanding of reality. Mohsen Kermanshashi has done an outstanding job in providing that new insi...

New Skins for Old Wine

Plato's Wisdom for Today's World

by Stephen C. Lovatt

2007

Most books of spirituality are far removed from intellectual rigor, and most books of philosophy are as dry as old bones. This volume seeks to bridge the gap. The author invites his readers to view the modern world through philosophical eyes as he relates Plato's words to issues such as friendship, human -rights, education, sexuality, bio-ethics and politics. Plato's words are quoted throughout the text; along with those of other thinkers such as Origen, Aquinas, King Charles I of England, Neitzche, Popper, Benedict XVI, and even Voldemort - the villain of the Harry Potter books.

How to Prove god Does Not Exist

The Complete Guide to Validating Atheism

by Trevor Treharne

2012

How to Prove god Does Not Exist is the complete guide to the nonbeliever stance. The most diverse validation of atheism ever written, it deconstructs every major criticism of atheism and defense of religion through logical, philosophical, historical, cultural, moral and scientific means. This builds towards a more strident approach towards asserting atheism, with five key justifications outlined for why god does not exist. This expansive work employs the philosophy of Epicurus, David Hume and Friedrich Nietzsche, the science of Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, plus the logic of Bertrand Russell, the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud, and the contemporized insights of New Atheism advocates such as Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins. It features original conclud...

The Veracity of Torah

Essays in Jewish Spirituality

by Tal Sessler

2020

Eight decades ago, the Jewish people underwent genocide in Europe. This apocalyptic event, was followed almost immediately by astonishing Jewish political and theological resurrection and renewal. This unique book ponders the tumultuous vicissitudes of the modern Jewish condition. Part memoir, part scholarship, and part theological conjectures, the book posits that to be a modern Jew entails constantly oscillating between seemingly disparate and contradictory polarities such as logos and revelation, worldliness and eternity, tradition and modernity, continuity and change. To be a modern Jew, postulates the author, is both fate and destiny, historicity and vocationalism. The Jewish saga, argues Rabbi Dr. Tal Sessler, is emblematic of the human saga writ large, inasmuch as all of us are, in ...

Bioethical Analysis of Sexual Reorientation Interventions

The Ethics of Conversion Therapy

by Travis K. Svensson, MD, MPH, PhD

2003

The efficacy, consequences and ethical principles surrounding sexual reorientation therapies provided by health professionals has been debated in the public, professional and academic arenas since the first interventions were offered. This thesis applies a model for problem solving in bioethics to the issues raised by this debate. This in depth exploration of the facts and fictions surrounding the provision of sexual reorientation interventions through the critical lens of bioethics will be useful to those patients, health professionals, and health policy makers who struggle to make sense of a highly political health care issue. Sexual reorientation is fraught with conflicting moral and ethical implications that impact the patient and the health professional on many levels. Bioethi...

European Zoroastrian Attitudes to Their Purity Laws

by Gillian Towler Mehta

2011

The thesis has one main focus, the purity laws of a religious group in Europe, an original piece of research never done before in the UK. The thesis uses diasporic theories of identity; theories of women and the body; theories of women, their bodies and patriarchal religion and theories of women, purity and pollution in religion, to explain why European Zoroastrian women continue to support six of the purity laws of Zoroastrianism in the year 2003. Purity and pollution are at the heart of the Zoroastrian religion and the research demonstrated that Zoroastrians belief in and knowledge of the six purity laws was strong in 2003. Zoroastrians are a diasporic religious group whose modern origins are in Iran and the sub-continent of India. They have been visiting and settling, from the sub-co...

The Twilight of the Scientific Age

by Martín López Corredoira

2013

This book gives a challenging point of view about science and its history/philosophy/sociology. Science is in decline. After centuries of great achievements, the exhaustion of new forms and fatigue have reached our culture in all of its manifestations including the pure sciences. Our society is saturated with knowledge which does not offer people any sense in their lives. There is a loss of ideals in the search for great truths and a shift towards an anodyne specialized industry whose main goal is the sustenance and procreation of an endogamic professional caste. A wide audience of educated people interested in these topics will most likely respond to the ideas expressed here as things they have thought about or observed, but have not dared to say out loud. REVIEW "Lopez-Corredoira's a...

Transcendent Apriorism

Pure Reason's Quest for the Noumenal

by Mark Robert Burgess

2011

The idea that the solitary thinker, using pure reason, can unlock the deepest mysteries of reality is certainly an exciting one. The rationalist dream began with Parmenides of Elea and became the epistemological foundation for the greatest metaphysical systems ever constructed. This thesis traces the complete historical development of this neglected epistemology and inaugurates a radical new appraisal of its method. The new clarity provides fresh insights into traditional puzzles like the Cartesian Circle and whether Plato had a secret esoteric doctrine. A new positive re-evaluation of a doctrine thought to have been refuted by Kant and the positivists will provide interest for students, philosophers and those interested in the history of ideas.

Socrates and Christ

A Study of the Philosophy of Religion

by R. M. Wenley

2006

"An attempt has been made," writes the author in his preface, "to show that the development of Greek thought and the peculiar character of Judaism necessarily rendered Christ’s work different from that of Socrates. While dogmatic theology undoubtedly contains very many elements derived from Greek philosophy, Christianity at its source is in no wise Greek. Philosophy partly prepared the way for it, and originated not a few doctrines which afterwards became incorporated in Christian dogma. This, however, was only a secondary relationship." In this attempt, the author avoids making any new groundbreaking assertions, and focuses instead on the main currents of scholarship that the two poles have attracted. In Wenley’s own words, "no pretence is made to trench upon disputed points of creed." A...

Answering the Call

The Story of the U. S. Military Chaplaincy from the Revolution through the Civil War

by William E. Dickens, Jr.

1999

This book argues that the standardization of the American military chaplaincy occurred during the Civil War. It shows that the chaplains of the North and South provided the model on which the modern chaplaincy is based. This model is seen in both the regulations which were established during this war and the actual ministry of the chaplains with the men of their assigned units. To accomplish this task, the book traces the history of the military chaplaincy from the American Revolution through the American Civil War. This analysis relies heavily on official documents and reports as well as personal accounts, letters, and diaries. It also incorporates appropriate secondary source material.

Augustine, Manichaeism and the Good

by Kam-Lun E. Lee

1997

This thesis will investigate, by means of the historical-critical method, Augustine of Hippo's understanding of the Manichaean idea of the Good, and how this understanding affects his own related notions of summum bonum and personal evil, and, as a corollary, his doctrine of predestination. The question of a possible Manichaean influence is particularly pertinent because Manichaeism is at heart a dualistic solution to the issue of good and evil. The focus is not on Manichaeism per se but on Augustine's perception of it, as more directly affecting his thinking. Augustine's treatise De natura boni (399) in part summarizes his treatment of "the nature of the Good" in earlier polemics. From his first writing, De pulchro et apto (380), to that point, Augustine understands the Manichaean co...

The Philosophy of Robert Ettinger

by Charles Tandy

2002

Robert Ettinger founded the cryonics (cryonic hibernation) movement in the 1960s and authored The Prospect of Immortality and Man into Superman. The ideas presented by Ettinger in these two books are examined in the present volume by living philosophers: • The Prisoner’s Dilemma, Collective Rationality, And The Prospect Of An Indefinite Prolongation Of Life (By John M. Collins) • Desirable And Undesirable Immortality: Ettinger And Arendt On Coping With Human Finitude (By Farhang Erfani) • Immortality, Death, And Our Obligations To Future Generations (By Richard V. Greene) • Time Shock And The Problem Of Anachronistic Being: An Anthropological Approach To Cryonics (By James C. Lindahl) • Caring Cryonics? (By Rita C. Manning) • Ettinger And Immortality (By Scott D. O’Reilly) • A Kanti...

Nichiren's Nationalism

A Buddhist Rhetoric of a Shinto Teaching

by Achilles S C Gacis

2000

Chapter One, "Religion and Nationalism in Early Kamakura Society" introduces the issues that affected the nation in the early Kamakura period. The first section points out the historical background of the time that was considered to be a spiritually significant age according to Buddhist chronology. The next section on the "Religious Answers to National Problems" provides a prelude to how the indigenous religious tradition of Shinto attempted to define its leaders and their right to rule as well as the divine protection that was to be given them by the native deities. The imported Buddhist teachings provided a new perspective to the national problems through an examination of existing conditions as possibly being consequences of immoral acts. The various characteristics of the teaching...

Margins of Desire

The Foundations of Derrida's Social Ethics

by Niva Arav

2010

In this research, the author analyzes Derrida's understanding of the way society is created out of a collection of individuals, how the individuals preserve their singularity and freedom within a social system and the meaning of ethics, as it comes out in his early writings. In this work, the researcher used a phenomenological method of research and Cassirer's way of analyzing the symbolic forms as a framework to analyze the early writing of Derrida. Although it is not a common approach to combine Derrida's philosophy with that of Cassirer's, the researcher found that Cassirer's ideas help to show Derrida's unique position.

Raising the Question of Being

A Unification and Critique of the Philosophy of Martin Heidegger

by Rufus A. Duits

2009

The thesis consists of two main divisions. The first presents an original interpretation of Martin Heidegger's philosophy. The second - premised on the first - presents a fundamental and internal critique of his philosophy. The interpretative division demonstrates the way in which the history of being is structurally grounded in the ontological conformation of Dasein. This amounts to evincing the unity of Heidegger's development of his basic philosophical project: the raising of the question of being, and requires an original account of both the philosophy of the history of being and the existential analysis of Dasein, as well as of the so-called Kehre. The critical division, which is founded upon the conclusions of the interpretative division, focuses on the structural grounding that He...

Overcoming Women's Subordination in the Igbo African Culture and in the Catholic Church

Envisioning an Inclusive Theology with Reference to Women

by Rose N. Uchem

2001

When African scholars lament over the near destruction of African cultures, they do not reflect the reality of African women's historical traditions of empowerment and inclusion in pre-colonial/pre-Christian African societies, which were also lost in the same process of Western Christian cultural imperialism. Similarly, most male Church theologians writing or speaking about inculturation do not address the deeper cultural issues, which impact heavily on African women. As Nigerian theologian, Rose Mary Edet rightly observed, "policy-related and other research projects concerned with "women in development" often uncover cultural factors without associating them with religious beliefs and myths that rule women's lives" (in Life, women and culture, 1991, Introduction). Yet, these deeper cultur...

The Process of the Cosmos

Philosophical Theology and Cosmology

by Anthony B. Kelly

1999

This thesis argues that with the advance of scientific knowledge, particularly in cosmology, Natural Theology can now provide an answer to the question as to the reason for the existence of man and the world. Aristotle had reasoned from the contingency of the world to the necessity of a God. He had also concluded that the world was unworthy of God's concern, as God could not be concerned with a world which was significantly different from God himself. Aristotle's reasoning from the world up to God, together with his inability to reason down from God to the world, established an antinomy. The history of subsequent attempts to avoid this antinomy, and to provide an explanation for the existence of the world, is considered. No such attempt is found to be successful. A hidden assumpti...

Canon 1096 on Ignorance with Application to Tribunal and Pastoral Practice

by Girard M. Sherba

2001

Before Vatican II, marriage was often considered, or at least popularly expressed, as a union of bodies; that is to say, marriage was an exclusive contract by which a man and a woman mutually handed over their bodies for the purpose of acts which led to the procreation of children. Matrimonial jurisprudence was primarily focused on this marital contract. With the advent of Vatican II and its emphasis on the personalist notion of marriage, a new age dawned whereby canonists, especially auditors of the Roman Rota, were henceforth to view marriage as a union of persons. "Person" is more than a "body"; rather, a person is an individual consisting of wants, needs, desires, impulses, hopes and dreams, whose life experience has been shaped by the milieu "cultural, familial, religious" fro...

Does God Change?

Reconciling the Immutable God with the God of Love

by Jennifer A. Herrick

2003

THE ISSUE The immutable God and the God of Love? Are they compatible? Does God change? Does it matter? If God is the immutable God, as interpreted from Classical Christian Tradition, a God who remains unalterable, what is the point of prayer? Does prayer, or any of our actions in the world for that matter, have any effect on God? Can we move God? Is God simply a static Being? Is prayer of use if God is absolutely immutable? Does God respond to prayer or to our actions in the world? Classical Tradition has presented us with a picture of an immutable God, a mono-polar God, who remains unalterable, unchanged, transcendent to our history in the world. ...

The Socio-Political Philosophy of Swami Vivekananda

by Bhaiya Subhash Chandra Prasad

2000

The influence of Swami Vivekananda on the INDIAN Nationalist Movement is well-known. Swami Vivekananda was not only a visionary, or a monk but a nationalist and a reformer par excellence. Many in our own country think that religion and mysticism and social amelioration and political and economic reconstruction cannot unite and declare that the secular and spiritual ideals are polar opposites. Such a notion has been responsible for the gross misrepresentations of the spirit of Indian philosophy, religion and culture, but the mystics, the saints and the sages of India prove standing refutation of this gross misconception. India's foreign domination is also attributed to her religion which is considered to be dreamy, idealistic, fatalistic, world-denying, pessimistic and unethical and othe...

Comparative Christianity

A Student's Guide to a Religion and its Diverse Traditions

by Thomas A. Russell

2010

Comparative Christianity: A Student's Guide to a Religion and its Diverse Traditions explores what Christians have in common and then works through the three major subdivisions of the faith: Eastern, Roman, and Protestant. Using categories common to many definitions of religion, each chapter employs the categories of belief, individual and group moral codes, ceremonies, and associations. The book is a good choice for a textbook on Christianity, for the general reader and/or the follower of other religious traditions who want to learn about the Christian faith. By reading this book, readers will have a fuller knowledge of what Christians, whatever tradition, have in common and what distinguishes one Christian group from another. Comparative Christianity is different than other similar bo...

God is, by Inference, One Dot

Paradigm Shift

by Peter Kien-hong Yu

2010

In September 2008, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) scientists successfully switched on the historic biggest physics device, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), to search for the Higgs boson or the God particle, which is but a dot. The ultimate question in the context of Panentheism and/or Pantheism is: Surrounded by an infinite number of dots, good or bad, is God also a (partial) dot? This author calls for a paradigm shift in our mind, by inferring that God is the superior, original dot of all dots.

Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence

A Critique of the Mechanistic Theory of Mind

by Rajakishore Nath

2009

This book deals with the major philosophical issues in the theoretical framework of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in particular and cognitive science in general. The researchers in AI are concerned with the issues of consciousness, human subjectivity, creativity, etc. Cognitive Science and AI argue that consciousness can be artificially created and comprehended in the function of robots. The robotic activities explain the mechanism involved in computation, language processing, sensing the information, etc. Contrary to this thesis, the philosophical study tries to show that human consciousness, thinking, imagination, etc. are much larger concepts and need to be delved into in the broad theoretical framework. This book is a critique of the mechanistic theory of mind. It shows the basic founda...

Ordaining Reality in Brief

The Shortcut to Your Future

by Joseph E. Donlan, Ph.D

2009

Many people believe in the Power of Positive Thinking, but no one had succeeded in credibly explaining how mere thoughts can tangibly influence future occurrences. To explain the connection, Joseph Donlan presented highly plausible theories in two preceding books. Each of these books presents a new paradigm of nature and couples it with a convincing explanation of how our right brain hemispheres have a unique ability to tap into the hidden domain of the metaphysical. This final book in the series also supports these premises; however, it does so at a higher, more condensed level so that readers with no background in science can gain enough information to appreciate the divergent worlds of physics and metaphysics and gain a view of nature that undeniably links mind to matter.

Language, Mind and Reality

A Reflection on the Philosophical Thoughts of R.C. Pradhan

by Ranjan Kumar Panda (editor)

2016

The essays in this book delve into the central theme of R.C. Pradhan's philosophy in particular and the issues in analytic philosophy in general. In analytic tradition, Professor Pradhan's research has been extensively in the area of Wittgenstein's philosophy: philosophy of language and philosophy of mind. While philosophizing the notion of language and mind, Pradhan explores the complexities of the web of life. For him, language neatly binds several aspects of life: the cultural, moral, religious, and scientific. The mind, however, represents the inner world of human experience that involves multiple dimensions of consciousness: the bodily, the vital, the mental, and the spiritual consciousness. Considering the broad spectrum of Pradhan’s works, the contributions in this book reflect main...

The Death of Science

A Companion Study to Martín López Corredoira's "The Twilight of the Scientific Age"

by Andrew Holster

2016

Modern science is in unprecedented crisis. It is a crisis at many levels, continuous with larger crises of modern society. It is a crisis for the vocation of the scientist working within the modern institutionalised structures of science. It is a crisis for our capacity to use science benevolently to help solve larger material, organisational, and ultimately political problems of the modern era. And it is a crisis for philosophy, for the role of natural science to help inform our world-view. The Death of Science is an account of deeper causes of this malaise. It starts by taking up the reins of López Corredoira's (2013) The Twilight of the Scientific Age, a recent critique that concludes with modern science on its death bed. It dissects key themes in detail, illustrated in the same frank s...

Illuminations of the Everyday

Philosophical and Cultural Expressions of Redemption in Weimar Germany

by Madeleine Claire Hall

2011

Benjamin's work has been classified either according to the principles of historical materialism, or according to the principles of metaphysics. This fragmentation of his ideas, however, obscures the real impetus of his oeuvre, particularly in the interpretation of his central notion of redemption. If instead one considers Benjamin as a critic of the everyday in search of a mechanism for change, influenced by the historical condition and his intellectual contemporaries, then we are able better to understand his narrative. The Weimar Republic was a period dominated by the dialectic between hope and despair. The intellectual sphere of Critical Theory attempted to understand their condition of alienation and establish a solution. Redemption is key to Benjamin's approach. Redemption carries th...

Conduct and Behavior as Determinants for the Afterlife

A Comparison of the Judgments of the Dead in Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece

by Gary A. Stilwell

2000

This dissertation argues that conduct and behavior were believed essential for determining one's post-mortem fate from the earliest periods of both ancient Egypt and ancient Greece. Part one of this four-part study examines Plato's eschatological myths and provides a complete catalog and brief discussion of all references in them to conduct and behavior that affect one's fate in the afterlife. Part two traces the evolution of the concept of the afterlife from Homer to the Dramatists, also cataloging all references to the afterlife that mention conduct and behavior. This part of the study demonstrates that the concept of reward and retribution in an afterlife, based on conduct in this life, is already found in Homer. However, it is in Pythagorean and Orphics circles of Greater Greece th...

The Authenticity of the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares and Its Interpretation

by Ramesh Khatry

2000

This thesis seeks to demonstrate the authenticity (as dominical teaching) of the parable of the darnel (Mt 13:24-30) and its interpretation (Mt 13:36-43). The interpretation in particular is almost universally regarded as non-dominical, notably by J Jeremias and his followers. My thesis argues that the whole of Mt 13:36-43 (and Mt 13:24-30) should be seen as dominical. The 'introduction' gives a brief survey of parabolic studies, and outlines the case against the authenticity of Mt 13:24-30,36-43. Chapter AI defends the authenticity of the parable (Mt 13:24-30). The following chapters do the same for the interpretation (Mt 13:36-43), looking at the 'Son of Man' and related teaching (chapter BI), the 'kingdom of God' (BII), 'righteousness' and 'lawlessness' (BIII), and other motifs (BI...

Practical Philosophy of Thought and Virtue

The Bases to Develop a Philosophical Thought by the Ordinary Citizen

by John N. Hatzopoulos

2004

In order for someone to deal with philosophy it is not necessary to have particular qualifications, since each individual has a very powerful logic. The use of logic in combination with the freedom of thought by a free person are enough in order to become a philosopher. For this reason the present work is addressed as much to the general public as well as to scientists of any speciality. It aims to present fundamental principles that will help as foundation stones in the construction of answers to the questions that are placed. New questions are raised, and new ideas on confronting such questions are introduced, providing motives for younger people who wish to deal with philosophy and want to work out answers.

Skepticism is True

by Abraham Meidan

2004

The main theses of the book are:
1. All statements are neither certain nor plausible. In other words: skepticism is true.
2. Skepticism, as formulated above, does not imply any absurd conclusions (in contrast to the view commonly held by philosophers).
3. People do not choose their beliefs. What we believe is determined by psychological processes.
4. People believe in statements that minimize the extent of the unexpected events of which they are aware.

Origen of Alexandria and St. Maximus the Confessor

An Analysis and Critical Evaluation of Their Eschatological Doctrines

by Edward Moore

2005

The revision of Origen's philosophical theology by St. Maximus the Confessor resulted in an eschatology involving the replacement of the human ego by the divine presence. In this study, I will examine the theological developments that led to this loss of a sense of human freedom and creativity in the face of the divine, tracing the influence of Origen's eschatology through the Cappadocian Fathers, Evagrius Ponticus and others, up to Maximus. This will allow me to show the manner in which Origen's humanistic theology was misunderstood and misinterpreted throughout the Patristic era, culminating in the anti-personalistic system of Maximus. Special attention will be paid to the development of Christian Neoplatonism, and how Christian contacts with the pagan philosophical schools came to ha...