The Idea Of God

What holds society together? How does civilization survive from collapsing in on itself? In this work, Kenneth A. Dobbs describes how religion is the cause of civilization’s rise and prosperity. Beginning with psychological theories on human nature, Dobbs establishes that humanity needs the religious values of truth, beauty, and goodness to flourish. He then proves this psychological theory by analyzing religion’s role in the historical developments of civilization in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Jerusalem, Greece, Rome, and Christendom. He also responds to rebuttals and objections against the thesis that religion is still necessary for modern civilization. The Idea of God explores the historical, political, and philosophical implications of both the implementation and rejection of religion within human civilization. Dobbs articulates religion’s necessary role in civilization, while also provocatively predicting Western civilization’s fate for rejecting religion: societal collapse. The book follows a long intellectual tradition of historians and philosophers who have argued a similar thesis including Polybius, St. Augustine, Arnold Toynbee, Russel Kirk, Richard M. Weaver, and Christopher Dawson. Dobbs reintroduces these classical ideas to the modern world.

What is the philosophy of religion? How can we distinguish it from theology on the one hand and the psychology/sociology of religious belief on the other? What does it mean to describe God as eternal? And should religious people want there to be good arguments for the existence of God, or is religious belief only authentic in the absence of these good arguments? In this Very Short Introduction Tim Bayne introduces the field of philosophy of religion, and engages with some of the most burning questions that philosophers discuss. Considering how religion should be defined, and whether we even need to be able to define it in order to engage in the philosophy of religion, he goes on to discuss whether the existence of God matters. Exploring the problem of evil, Bayne also debates the connection between faith and reason, and the related question of what role reason should play in religious contexts. Shedding light on the relationship between science and religion, Bayne finishes by considering the topics of reincarnation and the afterlife. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

The proposition that the existence of God is demonstrable by rational argument is doubted by nearly all philosophical opinion today and is thought by most Christian theologians to be incompatible with Christian faith. This book argues that, on the contrary, there are reasons of faith why in principle the existence of God should be thought rationally demonstrable and that it is worthwhile revisiting the theology of Thomas Aquinas to see why this is so. The book further suggests that philosophical objections to proofs of God's existence rely upon an attenuated and impoverished conception of reason which theologians of all monotheistic traditions might wish to reject. Denys Turner proposes that on a broader and deeper conception of it, human rationality is open to the 'sacramental shape' of creation as such and in its exercise of rational proof of God it in some way participates in that sacramentality of all things.

On first publication in the 1960s, "Honest to God" did more than instigate a passionate debate about the nature of Christian belief in a secular revolution. It epitomised the revolutionary mood of the era and articulated the anxieties of a generation.

A robust defence of the philosophy of Idealism - the view that all reality is based on Mind - which shows that this is strongly rooted in classical traditions of philosophy.

Essays on atheism by Kurt Baier, John Dewey, Paul Edwards, Antony Flew, Sigmund Freud, Erich Fromm, Sidney Hook, Walter Kaufmann, Corliss Lamont, Wallace I. Matson, H.J. McCloskey, Ernest Nagel, Kai Nielsen, Richard Robinson, Bertrand Russell, and Michael Scriven.

In this tour of the history of arguments for and against the existence of God, Nathan Schneider embarks on a remarkable intellectual, historical, and theological journey through the centuries of believers and unbelieversÑfrom ancient Greeks, to medieval Arabs, to todayÕs most eminent philosophers and the New Atheists. Framed by an account of SchneiderÕs own unique journey, God in Proof illuminates the great minds who wrestled with one of historyÕs biggest questions together with their arguments, bringing them to life in their time, and our own. SchneiderÕs sure-handed portrayal of the characters and ideas involved in the search for proof challenges how we normally think about doubt and faith while showing that, in their quest for certainty and the proofs to declare it, thinkers on either side of the God divide are often closer to one another than they would like to think.

Guthrie's work on the Pastoral Epistles is part of the Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, a popular series designed to help the general Bible reader understand clearly what the text actually says and what it means without depending unduly on scholarly technicalities.