SPIRIT MATTERS – Reaching for the Divine

David Bentley Hart (David Bentley Hart – Wikipedia) is an American theologian who was brought up as an Episcopalian but has converted to Eastern Orthodoxy. Universal salvation is very much a minority doctrine among religious believers, but this is the position argued for in this book. The author puts forward his position as follows: David […]

Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834, Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)) looms large for anyone interested in systematic theology. Indeed he is widely regarded as the founder of modern Protestant theology, and is required reading in schools of Divinity. In this book, Richard Crouter argues that Schleiermacher’s theology is best understood by examining his position

Anthropologists have been studying ritual in human societies on a formal basis since Emile Durkheim (1858—1917) (Durkheim, Emile | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Ritual is a condensed event within a human society that contains a high degree of symbolism. Building on a solid body of scholarship about ritual, this author connects these findings with neuroscience.

Francesca Stavrakopoulou (Professor Francesca Stavrakopoulou | Theology and Religion | University of Exeter) is a biblical scholar and broadcaster. She is currently (2024) Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Religion at the University of Exeter. The main focus of her research is on the Hebrew Bible, and on Israelite and Judahite history and religion. In this book Stavrakopoulou presents Yahweh, the

Such is the relentless commercialisation of Christmas as a winter festival that the tinsel and all other orgiastic necessities have been appearing for sale since September. By this measure we’re bounding close to the day of Christ’s Mass. ‘Tis the season in which neither Amazon’s little helpers nor their billions of gratified gift recipients have

It has been understood at least since Wittgenstein (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wittgenstein/) that there are varieties of human thought and discourse, and that they intersect in interesting ways. They have been described as ‘language games’. Each game in a school playground has its own set of rules. These are absorbed and complied with by the participants for the

Religion is an extremely complex social and cultural phenomenon. No simple definition can capture its manifold nature. Rich, simple, consoling, disturbing, unifying, divisive, colourful, austere, prayerful, practical, doctrinal, mystical, peaceful, militaristic, solitary, communitarian, supernatural, worldly. It has all of these (often contradictory) aspects. The very briefest attempt to get a conceptual handle on the phenomenon

A myth is not an untruth or a lie. The word ‘myth’ has been hijacked to convey the meaning of falsity in recent decades, but this hijacking has done great disservice to the concept of myth. Myth, rather, is a package, in which deeper truths are contained. Edward Walker argues here that we should recover the value of