Why We Need Religion
Author | : Stephen T. Asma |
Publisher | : Oxford University Press |
Total Pages | : 273 |
Release | : 2018-05-09 |
Genre | : Religion |
ISBN | : 0190469692 |
How we feel is as vital to our survival as how we think. This claim, based on the premise that emotions are largely adaptive, serves as the organizing theme of Why We Need Religion. This book is a novel pathway in a well-trodden field of religious studies and philosophy of religion. Stephen Asma argues that, like art, religion has direct access to our emotional lives in ways that science does not. Yes, science can give us emotional feelings of wonder and the sublime--we can feel the sacred depths of nature--but there are many forms of human suffering and vulnerability that are beyond the reach of help from science. Different emotional stresses require different kinds of rescue. Unlike secular authors who praise religion's ethical and civilizing function, Asma argues that its core value lies in its emotionally therapeutic power. No theorist of religion has failed to notice the importance of emotions in spiritual and ritual life, but truly systematic research has only recently delivered concrete data on the neurology, psychology, and anthropology of the emotional systems. This very recent "affective turn" has begun to map out a powerful territory of embodied cognition. Why We Need Religion incorporates new data from these affective sciences into the philosophy of religion. It goes on to describe the way in which religion manages those systems--rage, play, lust, care, grief, and so on. Finally, it argues that religion is still the best cultural apparatus for doing this adaptive work. In short, the book is a Darwinian defense of religious emotions and the cultural systems that manage them.
Ascend
Author | : Eric Stoltz |
Publisher | : Paulist Press |
Total Pages | : 260 |
Release | : 2009 |
Genre | : Religion |
ISBN | : 9780809146215 |
This book is a contemporary, scripture-rich, and visual exploration of the Catholic faith for young adults. There are chapter profiles on Christian role models from both ancient and modern times, and discussions of contemporary events from a Christian perspective. (Adapted from back cover).
Teaching about Religion in the Social Studies Classroom
Author | : Charles C. Haynes |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : 248 |
Release | : 2019 |
Genre | : Religion |
ISBN | : 9780879861131 |
For God's Sake
Author | : Antony Loewenstein |
Publisher | : Macmillan Publishers Aus. |
Total Pages | : 359 |
Release | : 2013-07-01 |
Genre | : Religion |
ISBN | : 1743289138 |
Four Australian thinkers come together to ask and answer the big questions, such as: What is the nature of the universe? Doesn't religion cause most of the conflict in the world? and Where do we find hope? We are introduced to the detail of different belief systems - Judaism, Christianity, Islam - and to the argument that atheism, like organised religion, has its own compelling logic. And we gain insight into the life events that led each author to their current position. Jane Caro flirted briefly with spiritual belief, inspired by 19th century literary heroines such as Elizabeth Gaskell and the Brontë sisters. Antony Lowenstein is proudly culturally, yet unconventionally, Jewish. Simon Smart is firmly and resolutely a Christian, but one who has had some of his most profound spiritual moments while surfing. Rachel Woodlock grew up in the alternative embrace of Baha'i belief but became entranced by its older parent religion, Islam. Provocative, informative and passionately argued, For God's Sake encourages us to accept religious differences but to also challenge more vigorously the beliefs that create discord.
For the Civic Good
Author | : Walter Feinberg |
Publisher | : University of Michigan Press |
Total Pages | : 173 |
Release | : 2014-01-28 |
Genre | : Education |
ISBN | : 0472052071 |
A case for teaching classes on world religion and the Bible in public schools