Soviet-style socialism has failed; but in Russia, China, and India the transition to capitalism has proven hazardous. Elsewhere, capitalism itself appears to be in crisis, often failing to meet the fundamental needs of workers, small farmers, and even the middle classes. Clearly, the world needs enterprises that are both economically efficient and

Can an orthodox Christian creed and ritual be combined with a liberal church administration and a tolerant civic acceptance of not-so-orthodox views and practices? This question—perennial among Catholics for the past two centuries and the goal of the Anglican quest for a via media—finds an affirmative answer in Zdenek V. David's history of the Utraquist church of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Bohemia. This church declared its autonomy from the Roman church in 1415 after the Bohemian preacher Jan Hus, who had decried clerical abuses and opposed the pope's doctrinal and juridical authority, was condemned by a Roman church council and executed. Sometimes called "Hussitist" (a usage David attacks for exaggerating Hus's role; "Utraquist" is the Latinized form of the Czech name it adherents used) this Bohemian church administered its institutions and educated and managed its clergy independently of Rome for the next two hundred years. David's book focuses on the middle course steered by the Utraquists after the onset of the Protestant Reformation. It rejected core Protestant beliefs, such as salvation by faith alone, and practices, going so far in emphasizing apostolic succession as to have its new priests ordained by Latin-rite or, in a few cases, Eastern-rite Uniate bishops. At the same time, the Utraquists pursued their orthodoxy by disputation rather than hurling anathemas and lived alongside Lutherans, the Unity of Brethren, and others. Ultimately the Utraquist church was reabsorbed into Roman Catholicism and its special features repressed in the Counter-Reformation.

The Middle Way is the practical principle of avoiding both positive and negative absolutes, so as to develop provisional beliefs accessible to experience. Although inspired initially by the Buddha’s Middle Way, in Middle Way Philosophy Robert M. Ellis has developed it as a critical universalism: a way of separating the helpful from the unhelpful elements of any tradition. In this book, the Middle Way is applied to the Christian tradition in order to argue for a meaningful and positive interpretation of it, without the absolute beliefs that many assume to be essential to Christianity. Faith as an embodied, provisional confidence is distinguished from dogmatic belief. Recent developments in embodied meaning, brain lateralization from neuroscience, Jungian archetypes and the Jungian model of psychological integration are drawn on to support an account of how Christian faith is not only possible without ‘belief’ in God or Christ, but indeed puts us in a better position to access inspiration, moral purpose, responsibility and the basis of peace.

The Dalai Lama lays out the Buddhist approach to matters of faith and devotion that is based on the highest spirit of critical inquiry.

Initially inspired by the Buddha's Middle Way, but working in Western Philosophy and related disciplines, Robert M. Ellis first developed Middle Way Philosophy in a Ph.D. thesis in 2001. This new detailed account is the product of a further ten years of refinement of his approach, and concentrates on the philosophical core. It will be followed by further volumes focusing more on the psychological and practical implications of the philosophy. Middle Way Philosophy aims to clear the ground for practical progress. It challenges many entrenched assumptions, including those of analytic philosophy. It also offers a new account of objectivity, as an incremental quality that helps us to engage with all conditions in our experience. It insists on a consistent approach to both facts and values that avoids both absolute claims and relativism. An important, original work, that should get the widest possible hearing. Iain McGilchrist, author of 'The Master and his Emissary'

"A departure at right angles to thinking in the modern Western world. An important, original work, that should get the widest possible hearing" (Iain McGilchrist, author of The Master and his Emissary) Middle Way Philosophy is not about compromise, but about the avoidance of dogma and the integration of conflicting assumptions. To rely on experience as our guide, we need to avoid the interpretation of experience through unnecessary dogmas. Drawing on a range of influences in Buddhist practice, Western philosophy and psychology, Middle Way Philosophy questions alike the assumptions of scientific naturalism, religious revelation and political absolutism, trying to separate what addresses experience in these doctrines from what is merely assumed. This Omnibus edition of Middle Way Philosophy includes all four of the volumes previously published separately: 1. The Path of Objectivity, 2. The Integration of Desire, 3. The Integration of Meaning, and 4. The Integration of Belief.

“A diverse and edifying collection of practices to use in annoying and difficult circumstances” from the author of What Would Buddha Do? (Spirituality & Practice). Written for spiritual seekers who deal with unenlightened coworkers and inconsiderate bank tellers more often than Zen masters and Tibetan monks, this book demonstrates the practical side of Buddhism. Author Franz Metcalf shows how to weave simple vows, quick rethinks, instant relaxations, fast visualizations, and many other stripped-down Buddhist practices into every area of life. Individually, Metcalf’s techniques work as quick fixes for specific dilemmas, but woven together, they gradually strengthen one’s spiritual base when one day a habitual way of being has been quietly transformed. While not written to impress pure Buddhists, this book takes Buddhism seriously. Approachable sections on Buddhism’s rich tradition and a sprinkling of quotes from ancient scripture and contemporary teachers connect the book’s practices to the deeper wisdom underlying them. Always, Just Add Buddha! remains squarely focused on daily life, drawing out the most practical aspects of Buddhism.

'Parables of the Middle Way' combines fiction and commentary to provide various imaginative ways into the core themes of Middle Way Philosophy already developed in Robert M Ellis's other books. The stories are either original, or adapted from a range of sources: philosophical, Buddhist and Christian. They include the story of a ship caught in a strait between two intractably opposed ports, an inside-out version of Plato's cave, a set of variations of the Good Samaritan suggesting all the other ways of doing good, and the early life of the Buddha transposed to eighteenth century England. Robert M. Ellis is the founder of the Middle Way Society, author of 'Migglism' and of the 'Middle Way Philosophy' series. He has a Ph.D. in Philosophy as well as a long-standing interest in fiction, and is devoted to developing new and more adequate ways of thinking that can be applied in practice.

This comprehensive and detailed survey of the first six centuries of Indian Buddhism sums up the results of a lifetime of research and reflection by one of Japan's most renowned scholars of Buddhism.