When You Distinguish Between Words, You Distinguish Yourself. Do you should all over yourself? Are you normal? Are we confined to living on Earth? Find the answers to these and other thought-provoking questions in A Dictionary of Distinctions, an inspiring look at the way language shapes our reality. Using real-life examples infused with the collected wisdom of dozens of philosophies and leaders, author Danish Ahmed explains the meaningful differences between commonly used words. You will learn:

Love is not an expression but a powerful act to be demonstrated by those who choose to engage in or share it. Society has socialized people into believing love as something they do not have control over. Love continues to be viewed as a sudden occurrence that ambushes those who share it, without them giving a deep thought of what they are engaging themselves into. As the phrase falling in love connotes, people have taken it for what it sounds on face value than an expressive phrase it actually is. Love cannot be a feeling but a choice. It is a conscious decision that one takes at a particular point. This book, therefore, seeks to demystify how love is not a feeling but a decision. Yes! True love does exist. For one to experience it, it is important to understand its essence and how it unfolds. Gods philosophy of love provides a basis from which to understand and experience the beauty of love. That love which regards not of its own but of the other. Love is a peculiar partnership, which neither anticipates nor forces a contribution of the other partner. Engaging in a love relationship however, can set you on a path that determines whether you will experience heaven or hell on earth. Choosing right is therefore vital.

Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) is widely recognized as one of the greatest philosopher-theologians America has ever produced, and recent years have seen a remarkable increase in research on his writings. To date, however, there has been no single authoritative volume that introduces and interprets the key aspects of Edwards' thought as a whole. The Princeton Companion to Jonathan Edwards provides just such a concise and comprehensive work, one that will be invaluable to students and scholars of American religion and theology as well as of literature, philosophy, and history. Comprising twenty essays by leading scholars on Edwards, the book will inform and challenge readers on subjects ranging from Edwards' understanding of the Trinity, God and the world, Christ, and salvation, as well as of history, typology, the church, and mission to Native Americans. It also includes a chronology of Edwards' life and writings that incorporates current research. Those familiar with Edwards' writings will find in these essays succinct expositions as well as bold new interpretations, and others will find an accessible, authoritative, up-to-date orientation to his multifaceted thought. The essays are by Robert E. Brown, Allen C. Guezlo, Robert W. Jenson, Wilson H. Kimnach, Janice Knight, Sang Hyun Lee, Gerald R. McDermott, Kenneth P. Minkema, Mark Noll, Richard R. Niebuhr, Amy Plantinga Pauw, John E. Smith, Stephen J. Stein, Harry S. Stout, Douglas A. Sweeney, Peter J. Thuesen, and John F. Wilson.

What does it mean to love? What are the traits of character that support love’s activity? How does the economy of grace—the mission of Christ and the action of the Holy Spirit—elevate and transform human love, virtue, and the desire for happiness? In On Love and Virtue: Theological Essays, the eminent Dominican theologian Michael Sherwin considers how the Catholic tradition has addressed these questions. Fr. Sherwin places this tradition in dialogue with contemporary questions. Taking St. Thomas Aquinas as his primary guide, Fr. Sherwin reads St. Thomas in light of his biblical and patristic sources (especially St. Augustine) and engages contemporary developments in philosophy in order to deepen our understanding of how grace both heals and elevates human nature. Along the way, Fr. Sherwin considers the vocation of the theologian and the biblical and patristic understanding of the Christian call to moral apprenticeship and friendship with God.

Jonathan Edwards on the Experience of Beauty relates Edwards' idea of beauty to his understanding of the psychology of religious experience. In his vocabulary of the language of beauty Edwards articulates a traditional understanding of beauty in the various relations that constitute primary and secondary beauty. All beauty, however, is ultimately founded on the beauty of God's Trinitarian being. Edwards' concept of the "sense of the heart," related to his psychology of religious experience, is articulated as an infusion of God's beauty. This experience results in a new perception and manifestation of holiness and beauty in the lives of the saints, both individually and corporately. True believers are to be "proportioned Christians," showing forth beauty in their affections. Edwards explicated this perspective in sermons, treatises--especially Religious Affections--and in a number of cases he presented, including the religious experiences of David Brainerd, Sarah Edwards, and his own awakening and conversion. In these cases, the language of beauty plays a prominent descriptive role. In summary, Jonathan Edwards on the Experience of Beauty shows the importance of Edwards' idea of beauty for his understanding of genuine religious experience. Edwards defines true or genuine religion as an experience of God's beauty that becomes manifested in the beauty of the affections. Further, in articulating that understanding, he utilized the vocabulary of his language of beauty. For Jonathan Edwards, beauty is the structure of genuine religious experience.

Dr. Bryant K. Owens presents the argument of the value of the Christian tradition of caritas (or love) from the philosophy and the subsequent hermeneutic of Saint Augustine of Hippo (354–430) within contemporary philosophical scholarship. Dr. Owens’s study of Augustine’s investigations into biblical interpretation will reveal that he sought the beauty of understanding as evidenced through caritas. The shift in the Western philosophical tradition during the Enlightenment period resulted in a solid break from authority-based hermeneutics to the autonomy of the mind. The result was a greater emphasis on the literal meaning of a text, as gleaned from the subjective mind of the reader and through grammatical and historical criticism, over the spiritual meaning of the text, or application of the greater meaning to Christian living. Dr. Owens proposes that the benefits of Augustine’s caritas as the a priori spirit of the biblical text and the proper application of that spirit in contemporary scholarship, should be the epistemological focus of hermeneutics rather than the emphasis on method prevalent from Spinoza to Dilthey. The concluding value from Augustine’s hermeneutic is that caritas is a product of understanding while at the same time is the method, or means, by which caritas is produced. Therefore, Augustine’s hermeneutic argues that the sense, or spirit, of Scripture is caritas and is the truth to which all Christian philosophy must cohere.

Love and Attraction is a collection of papers presented at the International Conference on Love and Attraction. This book is organized into 12 parts encompassing 78 chapters that cover various aspects of the subjects, including friendship, intimacy, and sexuality. The introductory parts deal with the psychological aspects of physical attractiveness, non-verbal intimacy, attraction, and friendship. The subsequent parts examine the geographical difference in mate selection, marital relations, and romantic love. These chapters also look into the structural features of personality, behavior, and romantic love. These topics are followed by discussions of exchange theory applications to love and attraction; the social psychology of human sexuality; relationship between sexual behavior and society; and sex therapy. The final parts are devoted to other sex related topics, including sex therapy, erotica, arousal, child sexuality, and pedophilia. This book will prove useful to psychologists, sociologists, psychiatrists, counselors, and other academic and clinical workers.

This encyclopedia provides a structure to understand the essential rudiments of human behaviour and interpersonal relationships

Argues that the 13th-century French poem can best be understood not by trying to resolve or choosing among the diverse meanings within it or among the myriad of interpretations by scholars and medieval and modern readers, but to accept those differences and reflect on our own willingness to accept to reject those meanings as a guide for a love or morality. Paper edition (unseen), $17.95. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR