Among the greatest challenges facing religious thinkers today is that created by historicism, the notion that human beings and their myriad understandings of reality are utterly historical, conditioned by contingent circumstances and tied to particular contexts. In this book, Demian Wheeler confronts the historicist challenge by delineating and defending a particular trajectory of historicist thought known as pragmatic historicism. Rooted in the German Enlightenment and fully developed within the early Chicago school of theology, pragmatic historicism is a predominantly American tradition that was philosophically nurtured by classical pragmatism and its intellectual siblings, naturalism and radical empiricism. Religion within the Limits of History Alone not only undertakes a detailed genealogy of this pragmatic historicist lineage but also sets forth a constructive program for contemporary theology by charting a path for its future development. Wheeler shows that pragmatic historicism is an underdeveloped resource for contemporary theology since it offers a model for normative religious thought that is theologically compelling yet wholly nonsupernaturalistic, deeply pluralistic, unflinchingly liberal, and radically historicist.

The story of Jesus of Nazareth, as recounted in the New Testament, has always been understood by the church to be historically true. It is an account of the life, death, and resurrection of a real person, whose links with history are firmly signalled in the creeds of the early church, which affirm that Jesus `suffered under Pontius Pilate'. Contemporary historical scholarship has, however, called into question the reliability of the church's version of this story, and thereby raised the question as to whether ordinary people can know its historical truth. This book argues that the historicity of the story still matters, and that its religious significance cannot be captured by the category of `non-historical myth'. The commonly drawn distinction between the Christ of faith and Jesus of history cannot be maintained. The Christ who is the object of faith must be seen as historical; the Jesus who is reconstructed by historical scholarship is always shaped by commitments of faith. A reconsideration of the Englightenment epistemologies that underlie much historical scholarship shows that historical knowledge of this story is still possible. Such knowledge can be inferential, based on historical evidence. A careful look at contemporary New Testament studies, and the philosophical and literary assumptions upon which it rests, shows that this scholarship should not undermine the confidence of lay people who believe that they can know that the church's story about Jesus is true.

The culmination of Eliezer Schweid’s life-work as a Jewish intellectual historian, this five-volume work provides a comprehensive, interdisciplinary account of the major thinkers and movements in modern Jewish thought, in the context of general philosophy and Jewish social-political historical developments, with extensive primary source excerpts. Volume Three, The Crisis of Humanism, commences with an important essay on the challenge to the humanist tradition posed in the late 19th century by historical materialism, existentialism and positivism. This is background for the constructive philosophies which sought at the same time to address the general crisis of moral value and provide a positive basis for Jewish existence. Among the thinkers presented in this volume are Moses Hess, Moritz Lazarus, Hermann Cohen (in impressive depth, with a thorough exposition of the Ethics and Religion of Reason), Ahad Ha-Am, I. J. Reines, Simon Dubnow, M. Y. Berdiczewski, the theorists of the Bund, Chaim Zhitlovsky, Nachman Syrkin, and Ber Borochov.

For the past four hundred years, theological debate has been dominated by a fundamental divide: between the liberals, with strong loyalties to the secularity of the secular state and university on the one hand, and the neo-orthodox, insisting on the absolute priority of a proper loyalty to the church community itself, on the other. God and Modernity strikes off in a fundamentally new directionAndrew Shanks boldly calls for a new and better way to do theology. Shanks argues that God is most present in a culture where public debate over ethical issues flourishes best. Social movements such as feminist movements, peace movements, and green movements have emerged to challenge both Church and State. These new movements are no longer confined to a particular confessional religious identity and are independent of state sponsorship. These social movements already made an individual impact on theology. What would a theology look like, systematically trying to reconcile older divisions in the theological debate with a new loyalty to such movements common ethos? Anyone wishing to gain a refreshing insight into a new way of understanding theology and politics will welcome this ground-breaking book.

A new translation of Immanuel Kant’s 1793 "Religion within the Limits of Mere Reason" in modern American English with the original German in the back for reference. This is Volume X in the Complete Works of Immanuel Kant from Livraria Press. Kant's "Die Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der bloßen Vernunft" is one of his most accessible works due to it's simplicity and basic lexicon. Here he writes about "the relationship of religion to human nature". Kant strove to fix both the Natural science and Theology by keeping them both in their respective dialectal parameters. Living through the heart of the Enlightenment, Kant observed the Epistemological problems brought about by One-World Newtonian Mechanical Reductionism, and the bad counter-reactions that Protestant apologists made. Like Hegel, Kant wants to restore faith as the "guardian of the speculative mysteries". This edition contains the prefaces to both versions of this work.

A Theologian’s Guide to Heidegger provides a uniquely theological introduction to the philosophy of Martin Heidegger, by focusing on not just the relationship between Heidegger and theology, or even the nature of the discourse that must occur between theological concerns and Heidegger’s philosophical errands, but by precisely exploring how theology can use Heidegger’s philosophy as a means of outlining the scope and task of postmodern theology. To do this, especially with the postmodern theologian in mind, this book considers the general relationship between Heidegger and theology, how Heidegger can be read theologically, while justifying why Heidegger must be read this way and defining the role that Heidegger must take in postmodern theology. This includes a careful consideration of Heidegger’s early theological roots from Freiburg to Marburg by examining the content of Heidegger’s lesser-known theologically-minded seminars, lectures, and talks.

William Placher and Derek Nelson compile significant passages written by the most important Christian thinkers, from the Reformers of the sixteenth century through the major participants in the contemporary theological conversation. Illustrating the major theologians, controversies, and schools of thought, Readings in the History of Christian Theology is an essential companion to the study of church history and historical theology. Excerpts are preceded by the editors' introductions, allowing the book to stand alone as a coherent history. This revised edition expands the work's scope, drawing throughout on more female voices and expanding to include the most important twenty-first-century theological contributions. This valuable resource brings together the writings of major theologians from the church's history for a new generation of students.

The Secular Contract seeks to defend the European Enlightenment's secularization of political philosophy by promoting an understanding of Enlightenment secular liberalism and extending it to contemporary issues. The work proposes that the Enlightenment united the secularizing trends that occurred at the time across all areas of knowledge into a "secular contract" for modern politics. It argues that this was a normatively valuable enterprise whose aims and arguments need to be recovered today, especially in light of the challenges faced by the West, including fundamentalist Christianity in the US and radical Islam in Europe. Looking at the works of many thinkers, such as Hobbes, Jefferson, Madison, Rousseau, the book then shifts to the present day to argue for a different liberalism, as suggested by such contemporary thinkers as William Galston or Stephen Macedo. An engaging read, The Secular Contract will appeal to anyone interested in political theory and the history of ideas.

'The History of Western Philosophy of Religion' brings together an international team of over 100 leading scholars to provide authoritative exposition of how history's most important philosophical thinkers - from antiquity to the present day - have sought to analyse the concepts and tenets central to Western religious belief, especially Christianity. Divided chronologically into five volumes, 'The History of Western Philosophy of Religion' is designed to be accessible to a wide range of readers, from the scholar looking for original insight and the latest research findings to the student wishing for a masterly encapsulation of a particular philosopher's views. Together these volumes provide an indispensable resource for anyone conducting research or teaching in the philosophy of religion and related fields, such as theology, religious studies, the history of philosophy, and the history of ideas.

This is the first of a set of three volumes which provide a fresh appraisal of the most important thinkers of the nineteenth century in the West. Some essays centre on major figures of the period; others cover topics, trends and schools of thought between the French Revolution and the First World War. The contributors are among the leading scholars in their field in Europe and North America. They seek to engage their subjects not only in order to see what was said but also why it was said and explore what is of lasting value in it. Readers, therefore, will find the essays not only highly informative about their subject matter but also distinctively personal contributions to the task of re-evaluating the thought of the nineteenth century. Contributions are sufficently clear to be of use to students in religious studies and cognate disciplines but have enough depth and detail to appeal to scholars.