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"The Project of Natural Theology" in The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology (Blackwell: 2009), p. 12.
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In contemporary particle physics, objects without mass are posited with primitive charges or spins, which are presumed to be the basic foundations for explaining more complex events. Positing a basic power, terrestrial or divine, is not, ipso facto, explanatorily empty. ... In the sciences, we may well claim that with respect to any explanation, further questions can be asked of it, but this is not the same thing as claiming that science does not or cannot posit basic powers and accounts that are not themselves explained by further powers or scientific accounts. If the sciences can allow that subatomic particles have basic powers, it is hard to see how we can rule out that intentional agents have basic powers.
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I study the bible, with bits of Christian origins and early Christianity thrown in. I’m also an atheist, both in the sense of not-believing-there-is-a-God, and believing-there-is-no-God. I’m fascinated by all kinds of things, from typography to chess, from conlangs to competitive swimming, from creative cartography to the mathematics of music. This is my bible and religion blog. I have been studying the bible for 20 years now. I’m particularly interested in New Testament criticism, although I have a soft spot for non-canonical Christian literature and try to dabble and keep up with the broad movements in Hebrew Bible scholarship and early church history." ~ Ian
Keith Ward (Crossroad Publishing: October 2005), 224 pages.
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Anglican philosopher-theologian Keith Ward, recently retired professor
of divinity at Oxford, has published a book called What the Bible
Really Teaches (about Crucifixion, Resurrection, Salvation, the Second
Coming, and Eternal Life) that is a charitable but firm rebuke to
fundamentalist readings of the Bible. Ward considers himself a
"born-again" Christian, but says that fundamentalist interpretations of
Scripture fail on the Bible's own terms. In Chapter 1, "Fundamentalism and the Bible," Ward investigates the
nature of the Bible and argues that it's incompatible with the doctrine
of verbal inerrancy as that is usually understood. He points out that
the Bible itself nowhere claims to be inerrant, or that all its stories
must be read literally. He contrasts that nature of the Christian Bible
with that of the Koran; the latter purports to be a word-for-word
dictation from God, while the former is a collection of writings from
varied periods and viewpoints that represent a response to God's
self-revelation. Ward's argument is that the Bible doesn't even purport
to be the kind of word-for-word dictation from God that fundamentalists
tend to treat it as. ~ Reviewed by Lee McCracken at Amazon.com
Craig A. Boyd (Brazos Press: November 2007), 272 pages.
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Boyd presents an insightful account of natural law ethics, the view that ethical principles derive from the requirements of human nature. A prime obstacle to the acceptance of this type of ethics is that it transgresses the fact-value dichotomy. Boyd responds in detail to this objection, as well as to G.E. Moore's criticism of ethical naturalism. Although he defends natural law, Boyd holds that the classical version of that view as advanced by Thomas Aquinas cannot be accepted. It is based, he writes, on outdated biology, and attention to modern evolutionary theory results in a natural law position less universalistic in its claims than the classical doctrine. Boyd further criticizes other attempts to use evolutionary biology in ethics, as expressed in Larry Arnhart's Darwinian Natural Right: The Biological Ethics of Human Nature and the writings of E.O. Wilson. Natural law, Boyd argues, needs to be supplemented with virtue ethics. He also compares natural law to divine command ethics and addresses postmodernist and relativist criticisms. Boyd discusses an unusually wide range of material, and his challenging book is recommended for philosophy collections. ~ Product Description
Nancy R. Pearcey (Crossway Books: Jun 29, 2004), 512 pages.
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As a religiously adrift young adult in the 1960s, Pearcey found her way to the Swiss retreat, and the intellectually rigorous faith, of the Calvinist maverick Francis Schaeffer. This book continues the Schaeffer-inspired project that Pearcey and Chuck Colson began in How Now Shall We Live? — awakening evangelical Christians to the need for a Christian "worldview," which Pearcey defines as "a biblically informed perspective on all reality." Pearcey gives credibly argued perspectives on everything from Rousseau's rebellion against the Enlightenment, to the roots of feminism, to the spiritual poverty of celebrity-driven Christianity. She also provides a layperson's guide to the history of America's anti-intellectual strain of evangelicalism. ~ Publishers Weekly
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First Things is published by The Institute on Religion and Public Life, an interreligious, nonpartisan research and education institute whose purpose is to advance a religiously informed public philosophy for the ordering of society. As far as I can tell, all of their print articles are available in full online. And, these articles are almost always of high quality. If you're curious about how religious people actually think about the appropriate place of religion in a multicultural society under a secular state, you can do no better than to begin your reading here.
Philip Broadhead and Damien Keown, eds. (I.B. Tauris: Feb 6, 2007), 240 pages.
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It is often alleged that religion is a major cause of war and dissent. History is littered with the wreckage of religious conflict, from the crusades onwards, and it is frequently maintained that it is religion which is the tinderbox that ignites so many regional disputes - from Bosnia's ethnic cleansing to the ongoing conflict in Iraq. If religion is on trial, the evidence against it so often seems damning. But is the picture really as grim as has been painted? Very little is heard in defence of religion and few attempts have been made to put the other side of the case. The essays in this volume are among the first systematically to explore the role of religion as a force for peace, both historically and in the contemporary world. They focus on the efforts that have been made by individuals, communities and religious groups to secure conflict-resolution and replace hostility with tolerance and mutual respect. Specific topics explored include: nationalism and religious conflict; revolution and religious wars; the impact of secularisation; ethnicity and religion; conflict over holy places; and making and keeping the peace. ~ Product Description
Wassily Kandinsky (MFA Publications: July 1, 2006), 192 pages.
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Wassily Kandinsky was one of the most influential painters of the twentieth century, and this text, in which he laid out the tenets of painting as he saw them and made the case for nonobjective artistic forms, is universally recognized as an essential document of Modernist art theory. A brilliant philosophical treatise and an emphatic avant-garde tract, it provides the theoretical underpinnings for Kandinsky's own work and that of his associates in the Blaue Reiter movement. While Michael Sadlerís masterful translation has been available and authoritative since its original publication in 1914, what hasnít been published until now is the significant correspondence between the translator and the artist, who followed the progress of his bookís transformation closely, and who offered numerous insights into and explanations of its meanings. These letters, from the archives of Tate Britain, have here been appended to Kandinskyís text to provide the first comprehensively annotated edition of this seminal work. This volume, which supersedes any previous edition, includes the letters, Kandinskyís prefaces and prose poems relating to the period in which the book was written and Sadlerís selected writings on art. It is more than an expanded edition--it is a major event, the first full account of a remarkable literary collaboration.
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Credo:
"Christians do not hold the truth, we are held by it." About Tom: "My graduate degree is in Industrial and Organizational Psychology.
Science and philosophy are things I do in my free time. Does that
hinder my credibility here? I hope not. I do my homework, and I stick
to things I understand, or if I have questions you’ll know about it in
what I write... I/O Psych is among the most quantitative (i.e. mathematical) of all the
social sciences. The “hard” scientists sometimes say that none of the
social sciences are really science, but this comes as close as you’re
going to get. It has the advantage as well of trying to account for
personality, which enters into a lot of my thinking about evidences for
God, the ultimate personality. But the main question I invite you to
ask is, “Does what I say make sense?” And if it doesn’t, by all means
leave a comment and let me know!"