Showing papers on "Faith published in 1987"

Islamic Values in the United States: A Comparative Study

Abstract: The religion of Islam is now an American phenomenon. Once thought to be primarily a way of life of the Arabs and a faith alien to the Judeo-Christian heritage of this country, it has grown to be one of the most prominent and rapidly-growing religious movements in America. This ethnography of immigrant Muslims considers five Northeastern communities in detail. Including numerous interviews with members of these communities, this investigation provides a highly personal look at what it means to be a believing, practising Muslim in America at a time when Islam is under the critical scrutiny of international news. The authors describe the institutions and leadership of American Islam, Muslim law, and its applications in the American context, examining the kinds of problems that beset Muslims trying to observe the elements of their faith in a potentially difficult environment. Family life and the roles and relationships of men and women are thoroughly detailed as well.

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation: Replies to Certain Questions of the Day, Vatican City 1987

Abstract: (1987) Instruction on Respect for Human Life in its origin and on The Dignity of Procreation The Linacre Quarterly: Vol 54, No 2, pp 24-49

The Confidence Gap during the Reagan Years, 1981-1987

Abstract: Remember the confidence gap, the lack of public faith in the functioning of major institutions, which started in the late-1960s and seemingly bottomed out in the early 1980s?1 Since then, the nation's economic recovery and disinflation, presided over by a President who evoked pride in the nation and faith in its promise and achievements, resulted in a sizeable improvement in many of the indicators of public morale. The malaise crisis to which Jimmy Carter called attention when he lectured the nation in mid-summer 1979 about the existence of a "crisis of confidence . . . that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will" seemed to be over.2 Seven years later, in the midst of a new crisis caused by the Iran-contra scandal, Ronald Reagan tried to convince the nation that during the "past six years, we have done much together to restore the faith and confidence and respect of our people and our country."3 But even prior to the scandal, the evidence from the opinion polls did not confirm this hopeful conclusion. Confidence in governmental institutions did improve between 1983

The virtue of faith and other essays in philosophical theology

Abstract: This collection of Robert Merrihew Adam's essays, two of them previously unpublished, draws on his extensive writings on philosophical theology, and discusses metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical issues surrounding the concept of God - questions of whether God exists or not, what He is or would be like, and how we ought to relate to such a being. Professor Adams, a leader in renewing philosophical respect for the idea that moral obligation may be founded on the command of God, studies the relation between religion and ethics, delving into an examination of moral arguments for theistic belief. Philosophers of religion; theologians.

Philosophy of Religion: An Anthology

Abstract: The most comprehensive text in its field, this anthology includes 74 articles in 9 areas of philosophy of religion: The Concept of God; Traditional Arguments for the Existence of God; Religious Experience; The Problem of Evil; Miracles, Death and Immortality; Faith and Reason; Science, Religion, and Evolution; and Religious Pluralism. The arrangement of the articles and the introductions which accompany them help place the readings in their historical or contemporary context, and ensure that you encounter a spectrum of viewpoints.

Household of Freedom: Authority in Feminist Theology

Abstract: Letty M. Russell's Household of Freedom addresses concerns important to all those struggling with issues of authority and equality in the church. Known for her work in feminist and liberation theologies, Russell now looks at the question of authority: that is, legitimate power in the context of Christianity. She uses the image of community, God's household of freedom, to describe ways in which human beings can better live and work together in faith.

The Idea of a Communitarian Morality

Abstract: During the past few years, and especially since the publication of Alasdair MacIntyre's After Virtue in 1981, we have seen a renewed attack on the premises of liberalism.' There is nothing new about such criticism. A long list of writers-Hegel, Marx, Dewey, and many others, including several Popes-have recoiled in various ways from what seemed to be an impoverished morality and an inadequate understanding of human society. The contemporary criticism has raised some new issues and has been sparked, in no small degree, by a spate of impressive writing in legal, moral, and social philosophy-writing that has reaffirmed the liberal faith in moral autonomy and in the imperatives of rationality. I refer, of course, to the work of John Rawls, Robert Nozick, and Ronald Dworkin.

Religious Law and Change: The Medieval Ashkenazic Example

Abstract: If law is conceived of, as religious law must be, as a revelation of the divine will, then any attempt to align that will with human wants, any attempt to have reality control rather than to be itself controlled by the divine norm, is an act of blasphemy and is inconceivable to a God-fearing man. As the Middle Ages was an age of faith among Jews no less than among Christians and Muslims, the unalignability, the "nonadaptability" if you wish, of religious law is a premise which must underlie all our investiga-

The Faith Healers

Abstract: James Randi, the celebrated magician, has written a damning indictment of the faith-healing practices of the leading televangelists and others who claim divine healing powers. Randi and his team of researchers attended scores of 'miracle services' and often were pronounced 'healed' of the non-existent illnesses they claimed. They viewed first-hand the tragedies resulting from the wide-spread belief that faith healing can cure every conceivable disease. The ministries, they discovered, were rife with deception, chicanery, and often outright fraud. Self-annointed ministers of God convince the gullible that they have been healed - and that they should pay for the service. This book examines in depth the reasons for belief in faith healing and the catastrophic results for the victims of these hoaxes. Included in Randi's book are profiles of a highly profitable 'psychic dentist', and the 'Vatican-approved wizard'.

The Structure of Resurrection Belief

Abstract: Faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ is absolutely central to the Christian religion. This book deals critically with some of the more serious attempts of the world's leading theologians over the past hundred years to handle the resurrection of Christ conceptually, testing for logical coherence the works of B.F. Westcott, Wolfhalt Pennenberg, Karl Barth, Rudolf Bultmann, Edward Schillebeeckx, Willi Marxsen, Geoffrey Lampe, John Knox and others. Beyond this, the book attempts to articulate-- positively and constructively--a logically coherent epistemology of faith in the resurrection of Christ, respecting the authority of the scriptural traditions as they are now understood by contemporary New Testament theologians, while remaining true to the transcendental dimensions of the resurrection as a divine mystery.

The Contributions of Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt to the Development of International Protection for Human Rights

Abstract: This nation has placed its destiny in the hands and heads and hearts of its millions of free men and women; and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God. Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights or keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose. To that high concept there can be no end save victory. Franklin D. Roosevelt State of the Union Message 6 January 1941

Greek Rhetorical Origins of Christian Faith: An Inquiry

Abstract: What is the origin of Christian faith? Are the roots of the concept the same in both the Old and New Testaments? With the support of semantic, historical, and analytical evidence, Kinneavy develops a controversial and persuasive hypothesis that the origin of the Christian concept of faith can be traced to Greek classical rhetoric. The author examines the notions of faith formulated by eight major Christian and Jewish theologians, presents a meticulous case for the historical influence of Greek rhetoric on Hebraic thought, and concludes with a novel rhetorical study of the several hundred occurrences of the Greek terms for "faith" and "to believe," emerging with overwhelming support for the Greek influence on Christian faith.

And God Created Laughter: The Bible as Divine Comedy

Abstract: Recognizing "a playful spirit" as part of our human makeup, Conrad Hyers shows how laughter and humor are integral to our serious study of the Bible. With the darker realities of the Bible--sin, suffering, and death--there exists a lighter side--laughter, humor, and playfulness. Competent biblical study, Hyers explains, requires both perspectives. This highly readable, preachable, and teachable work gives ministers, students, and lay readers a valuable tool for recovering the spirit of humor and offers a chance to share in the celebration of life and the divine comedy of faith, hope, and love.

Psychotherapeutic Virtues and the Grammar of Faith

Abstract: A new method for integrating secular psychotherapies into Christian practice, “the virtues approach,” is presented, which promises more fine-grained assessment of continuities and discontinuities b...

Tertium datur - oor die etiese waarheidsbegrip

Abstract: Tertium datur - on the conception of truth in Dutch 'Ethical Theology' In this article the 'third option' on the Dutch theological scene of a century ago is examined. The 'Ethical Theology', as this option is known, is explained on the basis of its characteristic conception of truth as something that cannot be encapsulated in propositions but which can be encountered. In this context the relationship between the Ethicals and their rivals on both the left and the right is discussed. In conclusion, an evaluation is given of the achievement of the Ethical current and its accommodation of reason and faith in a single theory.

James's will-to-believe doctrine : a heretical view

Abstract: In 1896 William James published an essay entitled The Will to Believe, in which he defended the legitimacy of religious faith against the attacks of such champions of scientific method as W.K. Clifford and Thomas Huxley. James's work quickly became one of the most important writings in the philosophy of religious belief. James Wernham analyses James's arguments, discusses his relation to Pascal and Renouvier, and considers the interpretations, and misinterpretations, of James's major critics. Wernham shows convincingly that James was unaware of many destructive ambiguitities in his own doctrines and arguments, although clear and consistent in his view that our obligation to believe in theism is not a moral but a prudential obligation -- a foolish-not-to-believe doctrine, rather than a not-immoral-to-believe one. Wernham also shows that the doctrine is best read as affirming the wisdom of gambling that God exists, a notion which James failed to distinguish from believing and which, among other things, he explicitly identified with faith. James's pragmatism, a theory concerning the meaning of truth, is shown to be quite distinct from the doctrine of The Will to Believe. In concentrating on a careful analysis of this doctrine of the will-to-believe, Wernham not only makes a major contribution to understanding James's philosophy, but also clarifies issues in the philosophy of religion and in the analysis of belief and faith.