Religion, Ethics, & Society: Religion & Ethics

"The Blackwell Guide to Metaphysics is a definitive introduction to the core areas of metaphysics. It brings together sixteen internationally respected philosophers that demonstrate how metaphysics is done as they examine topics including causation, temporality, ontology, personal identity, idealism, and realism." - Wiley-Blackwell

The central aim of this encyclopedia is to give the reader a comparative perspective on issues involving conceptions of gender, gender differences, gender roles, relationships between the genders, and sexuality. The encyclopedia is divided into two volumes: Topics and Cultures. The combination of topical overviews and varying cultural portraits is what makes this encyclopedia a unique reference work for students, researchers and teachers interested in gender studies and cross-cultural variation in sex and gender. It deserves a place in the library of every university and every social science and health department.

the encyclopedia marshals the talents of more than 150 scholars to produce the most comprehensive and up-to-date description and analysis of women and religion in North America. The encyclopedia is interreligious, interracial, and multicultural and is aimed at a broad general audience. Instead of hundreds of short entries, this encyclopedia features more than 145 longer essays that enable major themes to be developed more fully. The articles focus on institutions, movements, and ideas. The authors weave biographical sketches into their articles to give them a more personal and humanizing quality, and to recognize the women responsible for the gains made over the centuries. The essays demonstrate that neither the story of women nor the story of religion in North America can be accurately told unless the religious experience of women is integrated into the center of women's and religious history. These well-illustrated volumes will be an essential reference for all of those interested in the role of women in North America's vibrant and complex religious life

This book discusses the role of religion in a religiously pluralistic liberal society, namely the United States. Nowhere else in the public realm do the fundamental religious questions about the meaning and nature of life arise in a context where resort to a political answer is the norm. Many people continue to insist that the US Constitution precludes religious participation in the political process, while others insist that by denying a role to religion we fundamentally discriminate against people of faith. As the chapters in this book demonstrate, the issues are complex and multifaceted. The book address such specific and highly contested issues as assisted suicide, stem cell research, cloning, reproductive health, and alternative medicine as well as general questions concerning as who legitimately speaks for religion in public bioethics, what religion can add to our understanding of justice, and the value of faith-based contributions to healthcare. The book begins with overview chapters about the role of religion in bioethics since the inception of the field. It then explores that role in the formation of public policy in terms of sociology, critical studies, philosophy, and religious studies. The book questions the distinction between public policy bioethics and clinical care, recognizing the close interconnection between the two. It offers insight on how religion shapes questions of justice in patient care and the ethical tools provided by Islam, Buddhism, and Evangelical Christianity that can be used both in advocating for public policy and in making individual care decisions. Over the last five to ten years, researchers have begun to explore the efficacy of religion as a mode of treatment.

"David Hume's An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, first published in 1748, is a concise statement of Hume's central philosophical positions. It develops an account of human mental functioning which emphasizes the limits of human knowledge and the extent of our reliance on (non-rational) mental habits. It then applies that account to questions of free will and religious knowledge before closing with a defence of moderate scepticism." - Cambridge University Press

"10 brilliant essays by a Nobel Prize-winning philosopher challenge romantic mysticism and promote a scientific view of society and nature. Russell explains his theory of logical atomism in these witty, cogent writings, which include popular treatments of religious and educational issues as well as more technical examinations of problems of logic."

"This book is a critical guide to the scholarly exploration of feminist theology. It describes the main features of this modern theological development and examines its major concerns and questions. It presents comprehensive and critical analyses of the essential matters of Christian doctrine written by contributors knowledgeable in feminist theology. The book presents a challenge for future scholarship, since it critically engages with the assumptions of feminist theology, and seeks to open ways for women after feminism to enter into the vocation of theology." -Cambridge University Press

"First published in 1952, professor’s Strawson’s highly influential Introduction to Logical Theory provides a detailed examination of the relationship between the behaviour of words in common language and the behaviour of symbols in a logical system. He seeks to explain both the exact nature of the discipline known as Formal Logic, and also to reveal something of the intricate logical structure of ordinary unformalised discourse." - Routledge

"This book presents an examination of Aristotle's accounts of voluntariness in the Eudemian and Nicomachean Ethics. It makes the case that these constitute a theory of moral responsibility — albeit one with important differences from modern theories. Highlights of the discussion include a reconstruction of the dialectical argument in the Eudemian Ethics II 6-9, and a demonstration that the definitions of ‘voluntary’ and ‘involuntary’ in Nicomachean Ethics III 1 are the culmination of that argument. By identifying the paradigms of voluntariness and involuntariness that Aristotle begins with and the opponents (most notably Plato) he addresses, the book explains notoriously puzzling features of the Nicomachean account — such as Aristotle's requirement that involuntary agents experience pain or regret. Other familiar features of Aristotle' account are cast in a new light. That we are responsible for the characters we develop turns out not to be a necessary condition of responsible agency. That voluntary action has its ‘origin’ in the agent and that our actions are ‘up to us to do and not to do’ — often interpreted as implying a libertarian conception of agency — turn out to be perfectly compatible with causal determinism, a point the book makes by locating these locutions in the context of Aristotle's general understanding of causality. While Aristotle does not himself face or address worries that determinism is incompatible with responsibility, his causal repertoire provides the resources for a powerful response to incompatibilist arguments. On this and other fronts Aristotle's is a view to be taken seriously by theorists of moral responsibility." -Oxford University Press

"This groundbreaking handbook provides a comprehensive picture of the ethical dimensions of communication in a global setting. Both theoretical and practical, this important volume will raise the ethical bar for both scholars and practitioners in the world of global communication and media." - Wiley-Blackwell

"This book continues and revises the ideas of justice as fairness that John Rawls presented in A Theory of Justice but changes its philosophical interpretation in a fundamental way. That previous work assumed what Rawls calls a "well-ordered society," one that is stable and relatively homogenous in its basic moral beliefs and in which there is broad agreement about what constitutes the good life. Yet in modern democratic society a plurality of incompatible and irreconcilable doctrines—religious, philosophical, and moral—coexist within the framework of democratic institutions. Recognizing this as a permanent condition of democracy, Rawls asks how a stable and just society of free and equal citizens can live in concord when divided by reasonable but incompatible doctrines?" - Columbia University Press

"Atheism: A Guide for the Perplexed moves beyond the polemics to present an overview of atheism that is rigorous but still accessible to the educated layperson as well as to the undergraduate student in philosophy and theology. After a preliminary investigation of what atheists mean when they use the words 'atheism' and 'God'-a much more complex investigation than one might suspect-the book explores the differences and similarities between 'old' and 'new' atheism; places atheism of either variety in context by examining the naturalistic worldview that grounds it; provides a short historical sketch of atheism; examines a number of arguments against God-belief; investigates whether an atheist worldview is consistent with ethics and a sense of purposefulness; inquires into whether the current militancy against religious belief is pertinent or a red herring; and concludes with a few suggestions for continued dialogue between believers and nonbelievers. The goal throughout is to present a balanced, non-partisan introduction to the worldview, principles, and arguments of atheism that highlights the position's strengths as well as its weaknesses." -Bloomsbury

"Bringing together thirteen new essays on the important relationship between traditional world spirituality and the contemporary environmental perspective of deep ecology, this landmark book explores parallels and contrasts between religious values and those proposed by deep ecology. In examining how deep ecologists and the various religious traditions can both learn from and critique one another, the following traditions are considered: indigenous cultures, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Judaism, Catholicism, Islam, Protestantism, Christian ecofeminism, and New Age spirituality." -SUNY Press