Engelska

Al-ghazali- The Mysteries Of Purification [Bok / Häftad]

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program for monographs. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.<br/><br/> In a time when conservative politicians challenge the irrefutability of scientific findings such as climate change, it is more important than ever to understand the conflict at the heart of the "religion vs. science" debates unfolding in the public sphere. In this groundbreaking work, John H. Evans reveals that, with a few limited exceptions, even the most conservative religious Americans accept science's ability to make factual claims about the world. However, many religious people take issue with the morality implicitly promoted by some forms of science. Using clear and engaging scholarship, Evans upends the prevailing notion that there is a fundamental conflict over the way that scientists and religious people make claims about nature and argues that only by properly understanding moral conflict between contemporary religion and science will we be able to contribute to a more productive interaction between these two great institutions.

Passionate Centrism is an important discussion of Positive Historical Judaism and the benefit of holding the center of Judaism-that is, the Conservative Movement. This book is an important resource for clergy and other congregational leaders and is an excellent product for lecture series.

The seventh-century CE Hebrew work <i>Sefer Zerubbabel </i>(Book of Zerubbabel), composed during the period of conflict between Persia and the Byzantine Empire for control over Palestine, is the first full-fledged messianic narrative in Jewish literature. Martha Himmelfarb offers a comprehensive analysis of this rich but understudied text, illuminating its distinctive literary features and the complex milieu from which it arose.<br/><br/><i>Sefer Zerubbabel</i> presents itself as an angelic revelation of the end of times to Zerubbabel, a biblical leader of the sixth century BCE, and relates a tale of two messiahs who, as Himmelfarb shows, play a major role in later Jewish narratives. The first messiah, a descendant of Joseph, dies in battle at the hands of Armilos, the son of Satan who embodies the Byzantine Empire. He is followed by a messiah descended from David modeled on the suffering servant of Isaiah, who brings him back to life and triumphs over Armilos. The mother of the Davidic messiah also figures in the work as a warrior.<br/><br/>Himmelfarb places <i>Sefer Zerubbabel</i> in the dual context of earlier Jewish eschatology and Byzantine Christianity. The role of the messiah's mother, for example, reflects the Byzantine notion of the Virgin Mary as the protector of Constantinople. On the other hand, <i>Sefer Zerubbabel </i>shares traditions about the messiahs with rabbinic literature. But while the rabbis are ambivalent about these traditions, <i>Sefer Zerubbabel</i> embraces them with enthusiasm.

From the turn of the fifth century to the beginning of the eighteenth, Christian writers were fascinated and troubled by the "Problem of Paganism," which this book identifies and examines for the first time. How could the wisdom and virtue of the great thinkers of antiquity be reconciled with the fact that they were pagans and, many thought, damned? Related questions were raised by encounters with contemporary pagans in northern Europe, Mongolia, and, later, America and China. Pagans and Philosophers explores how writers--philosophers and theologians, but also poets such as Dante, Chaucer, and Langland, and travelers such as Las Casas and Ricci--tackled the Problem of Paganism. Augustine and Boethius set its terms, while Peter Abelard and John of Salisbury were important early advocates of pagan wisdom and virtue. University theologians such as Aquinas, Scotus, Ockham, and Bradwardine, and later thinkers such as Ficino, Valla, More, Bayle, and Leibniz, explored the difficulty in depth. Meanwhile, Albert the Great inspired Boethius of Dacia and others to create a relativist conception of scientific knowledge that allowed Christian teachers to remain faithful Aristotelians. At the same time, early anthropologists such as John of Piano Carpini, John Mandeville, and Montaigne developed other sorts of relativism in response to the issue. A sweeping and original account of an important but neglected chapter in Western intellectual history, Pagans and Philosophers provides a new perspective on nothing less than the entire period between the classical and the modern world.

Dogs is multi-award-winning photographer Tim Flach's stunning follow-up to the critically acclaimed Equus. Here, Flach once again sets out to document fully the lives of animals whose history is powerfully linked to our own and to provide a unique perspective on one of our closest companions: this time, dogs. Using photographs of dogs both solitary and in groups, as well as in varied settings and locations, Flach uses his lens to present a inimitable and engaging portrait of the physical and spiritual lives of dogs (breeds and crossbreeds of all types) around the globe. Since the wolf first snuck into the caves of our ancestors to take warmth from the fire, dogs have been man's constant companion. Dogs delves deep into the psyche of this enduring bond to create an exquisite study of man's best friendA". From specimens on show at Crufts and Westminster to shelter dogs lovingly rescued by volunteers; from the grace and agility of racing greyhounds to adored domestic companions; from Afghan hounds to Hungarian komondors, the dogs featured in Dogs promise to deliver one of the most appealing, popular and exciting photographic tributes to dogs ever published.

Dr Naomichi Masaki highlights the liturgical thinking of Theodor Kliefoth (1810-1895) who served in Schwerin, Germany and found his liturgical ideal in the Reformation era. 1850 his liturgical thinking started to influence the Swedish Church. One consequence was that the culmination of the Lord's Supper's Preface no longer should be formulated "It is right and proper" but instead "He alone in worthy of thanks and praise". Rev Dr Masaki is Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft Wayne, Indiana USA