Introduces the work and thought of Nishida Kitar-o, a Japanese who was one of the 20th century's most profound interpreters of Oriental metaphysics in the language Western philosophy. Expounds his approach to God, religion, morality, and pure experience, with chapters on the logic of basho, self-contradictory identity, God and nothingness, action intuition, and values and feeling. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

When we hear the term "Japanese philosophy" we think of Zen Buddhism or the Shinto scriptures. Yet one of the great 20th century interpreters of Western philosophy, Nishida Kitaro, lived and wrote in the Japanese islands all his life, laboring at an ultimate synthesis of oriental thought and Western hermeneutics. To be sure, Nishida's aim was to understand his own cultural influences in relation to the Western world. What distinguished him, however, was his passion for rendering oriental metaphysics understandable in the language of Western philosophy, and his attempts to contrast the paradoxicality of Buddhist logic with the logical strategies of Aristotle, Kant, or Hegel. Featured in this book is an interpretation of Nishida's writings. Professor Carter focuses on the Japanese thinker's notion of "basho," a concept of nothingness as field, place or topos as borrowed from Plato's Tim'us. Expounding on the logical foundations and archaic elements in Nishida's work, and carefully explaining Nishida's critical approach to the questions of God, religion and morality, and pure existence, this discerning book offers students of Western philosophy and oriental thought alike a highly readable introduction to the teachings of a true world philosopher.

In this long-awaited work, Ray L. Hart offers a speculative theology that profoundly challenges traditional understandings of God. Drawing on a lifetime of reading in philosophy and religious thought, Hart unfolds a vision of God perpetually in process: an unfinished God. Breaking out of the classical doctrine of divine persons, Hart reimagines Trinity as composed of theogony, cosmogony, and anthropogony an emerging Godhead in relation to origins, temporal creation, and human existence. The book s ultimate import is that all of Being and Nonbeing emerges together in interrelation and interdependence. This divine reality, Hart explains, is unfinished, imperfect, still in the course of a living-dying process that implicates all things, existent and inexistent, temporal and eternal. Doctrinal closuresomething that every orthodox theology requiresthus becomes impossible, and rightly so. Hart confronts those orthodoxies by asking: How can thinking of God reach closure when the divine is itself unfinished and its appearance to us always amounts to new creation? Hart s insights open the potencies of the nothing to the actualization of freedomthe freedom to create. That is, the nothing is not for nothingit is procreative. In the domain of radical speculative theology, then, Hart offers a fully deconstructive revisioning of the Christian God as ever an emerging and self-transfiguring actuality. It is a work with which all serious students of theology will wish to contend."

In his new study, Beyond Atheism, Beyond God, author Philip A. Stahl uses atheism as a rational stepping stone to arrive at an emergent conception of the universe, exposing features that might be described as transcendent. He presents an impersonal approach to Being that is devoid of any specific religious overtones or affi liations. Each person becomes a quantum-based co-creator in his or her own right, according to physicist Henry Stapp. As such, we are able to thereby see ourselves and our humanity in a new light, as opposed to being merely reactive cogs in a vast mechanical-reductionist machine. Effectively, we emerge as much more than assemblies of molecules. This volume, the fourth and final entry in Stahls series on atheism, seeks to arrive at a transcendent concept of being that also surpasses absolutism and nave or dogmatic deity templates. It considers the development of a more realistic, cogent and effective ethics and morality less likely to be exploited by the power mongers or sacred source apologists, and it answers the question of whether God existsthough not in the way one would normally assume.

Meister Eckhart, a now-popular medieval German mystic, provides the contemporary person with a way of living that centers on nothing but God in everyday life. He insists that everyone—whatever they have done, whatever they believe—is one with God. Because of this, the good Meister sees no opposition between our spiritual and daily lives. We access oneness with God through letting go. Bliss and freedom flow from giving birth to this divine oneness right where we are. This book intends to help us live this everyday mysticism by prayer and letting go. Meister Eckhart invites all of us to realize our divine oneness in the midst of raising a family, commuting, doing our jobs, cooking, cleaning, and scheduling. Meister Eckhart preaches that God is one with every one of us in our everyday lives.

If you are searching for practical strategies and arguments to defend your Christian faith, How Science Has Discovered God: Physics, Metaphysics, and Beyond is a must-read. Through meticulous research and analysis, Darrell Hall skillfully conveys scientific concepts and theories—from the origins of the universe to the origins of life—all the while displaying the fingerprints of an intelligent Creator. Hall bridges the perceived gap between reason and belief, offering compelling scientific, philosophical, historical, and theological arguments for the existence of God. How Science Has Discovered God is not just another book on the relationship between science and religion. It is a quest for the truth about reality and the meaning and purpose of life. It engages the reader in a thought-provoking exploration of Christian Apologetics, revealing the existence of a loving and purposeful Creator. Explore with the author: why God is the best explanation for the big bang, the fine-tuning of the universe, the mathematical intelligibility of the universe, the existence of mind, consciousness, and free will, and much more. Unearth the evidence for the claims of Jesus and his resurrection, and see how suffering and evil are best explained through a loving God. This authoritative and comprehensive study is sure to provide material for thought and inspiration. Over two thousand years ago, Jesus assured us that God is real, that God does care, and that everything we do does matter. With a willingness to follow where the evidence leads, join Darrell Hall in a search for truth. Open your mind and heart, and listen to the voice of God, as He speaks through His Creation, and His Son, Jesus Christ.

This book provides a much-needed introduction to the Kyoto School of Japanese philosophy. Robert E. Carter focuses on four influential Japanese philosophers: the three most important members of the Kyoto School (Nishida Kitarō, Tanabe Hajime, and Nishitani Keiji), and a fourth (Watsuji Tetsurō), who was, at most, an associate member of the school. Each of these thinkers wrestled systematically with the Eastern idea of "nothingness," albeit from very different perspectives. Many Western scholars, students, and serious general readers are intrigued by this school of thought, which reflects Japan's engagement with the West. A number of works by various thinkers associated with the Kyoto School are now available in English, but these works are often difficult to grasp for those not already well-versed in the philosophical and historical context. Carter's book provides an accessible yet substantive introduction to the school and offers an East-West dialogue that enriches our understanding of Japanese thought while also shedding light on our own assumptions, habits of thought, and prejudices.