Since the early 1960s, music fans have found Bob Dylan's spirituality fascinating, and many of them have identified Dylan as a kind of spiritual guru. This book, written by a scholar who is a longtime fan, examines Dylan's mystique, asking why audiences respond to him as a spiritual guide. This book reveals Bob Dylan as a major twentieth- and twenty-first-century religious thinker with a body of relevant work that goes far beyond a handful of gospel albums.
The Bible and theology are contested spaces, battlegrounds where participants guard entrenched beliefs against perceived threats. But literature, observes novelist Salman Rushdie, opens the universe. It expands what we perceive and understand, and ultimately what we are. Writers make our world feel larger and more inclusive. When other forces push in the direction of narrowness, bigotry, tribalism, cultism, and war, fiction encourages understanding, sympathy, and identification with others. Reading the Margins invites readers to immerse themselves in imaginary worlds, and to pursue visions of justice and compassion. Whether stories about poverty, empire, war, or the environment, the writers considered raise moral questions and often, in the process--even unwittingly--deepen our understanding of biblical calls for kindness and mercy. Reading the Margins offers a kind of commentary on biblical ethics. Using Matthew's Beatitudes and sheep and goats parable as an organizing principle, Gilmour argues there is much to learn about Jesus's "peacemakers" and call to feed the hungry from aspirational fiction and poetry.
The Bible teems with nonhuman life, from its opening pages with God's creation of animals on the same day and out of the same earth as humans to its closing apocalyptic scenes of horses riding out of the sky. Animals are Adam's companions, Noah's shipmates, and Elijah's saviors. They are at the center of ancient Israel's religious life as sacrifices and yet, as Job discovers, beyond human dominion. It is an animal that saves Balaam from certain death by an angel's hand, and an animal that carries Jesus into Jerusalem. The Creator declares all of them good at the beginning, and since the Apostle Paul writes of God's eternal purposes for all things on earth, they are somehow part of a hoped-for eschatological restoration. So why are animals so often ignored in Christian moral discourse? In its theological thinking and faith-motivated praxis, human-centeredness typically results in the complete erasure of the nonhuman. This book argues that this exclusion of animals is problematic for those who see the Bible as authoritative for the religious life. Instead, biblical literature bears witness to a more inclusive understanding of moral duty and faith-motivated largesse that extends also to Eden's other residents.
This book examines C. S. Lewis’s writings about animals, and the theological bases of his opposition to vivisection and other cruelties. It argues Genesis is central to many of these ethical musings and the book’s organization reflects this. It treats in turn Lewis’s creative approaches to the Garden of Eden, humanity’s “dominion” over the earth, and the loss of paradise with all the catastrophic consequences for animals it presaged. The book closes looking at Lewis’s vision of a more inclusive community. Though he left no comprehensive summary of his ideas, the Narnia adventures and science fiction trilogy, scattered poems and his popular theology inspire affection and sympathy for the nonhuman. This study challenges scholars to reassess Lewis as not only a literary critic and children’s author but also an animal theologian of consequence, though there is much here for all fans of Mr. Bultitude and Reepicheep to explore.
This book examines animal welfare themes in fiction, and considers how authors of the last two centuries undermine dominative attitudes toward the nonhuman. Appearing alongside the emerging humane movements of the nineteenth century and beyond is a kind of storytelling sympathetic to protectionist efforts well-described as a literature of protest. Compassion-inclined tales like the Dolittle adventures by Hugh Lofting educate readers on a wide range of ethical questions, empathize with the vulnerable, and envision peaceful coexistence with other species. Memorable characters like Black Beauty and Beautiful Joe, Ivan the gorilla and Louis the trumpeter swan, Hazel and Cheeta, Mr. Bultitude and Doctor Rat do not merely amuse. They are voices from the margins who speak with moral urgency to those with ears to hear. This broad survey of ethical themes in animal fiction highlights the unique contributions creative writers make toward animal welfare efforts.
The Bible and theology are contested spaces, battlegrounds where participants guard entrenched beliefs against perceived threats. But literature, observes novelist Salman Rushdie, opens the universe. It expands what we perceive and understand, and ultimately what we are. Writers make our world feel larger and more inclusive. When other forces push in the direction of narrowness, bigotry, tribalism, cultism, and war, fiction encourages understanding, sympathy, and identification with others. Reading the Margins invites readers to immerse themselves in imaginary worlds, and to pursue visions of justice and compassion. Whether stories about poverty, empire, war, or the environment, the writers considered raise moral questions and often, in the process--even unwittingly--deepen our understanding of biblical calls for kindness and mercy. Reading the Margins offers a kind of commentary on biblical ethics. Using Matthew's Beatitudes and sheep and goats parable as an organizing principle, Gilmour argues there is much to learn about Jesus's ""peacemakers"" and call to feed the hungry from aspirational fiction and poetry.
This book examines animal welfare themes in fiction, and considers how authors of the last two centuries undermine dominative attitudes toward the nonhuman. Appearing alongside the emerging humane movements of the nineteenth century and beyond is a kind of storytelling sympathetic to protectionist efforts well-described as a literature of protest. Compassion-inclined tales like the Dolittle adventures by Hugh Lofting educate readers on a wide range of ethical questions, empathize with the vulnerable, and envision peaceful coexistence with other species. Memorable characters like Black Beauty and Beautiful Joe, Ivan the gorilla and Louis the trumpeter swan, Hazel and Cheeta, Mr. Bultitude and Doctor Rat do not merely amuse. They are voices from the margins who speak with moral urgency to those with ears to hear. This broad survey of ethical themes in animal fiction highlights the unique contributions creative writers make toward animal welfare efforts.
Since the early 1960s, music fans have found Bob Dylan's spirituality fascinating, and many of them have identified Dylan as a kind of spiritual guru. This book, written by a scholar who is a longtime fan, examines Dylan's mystique, asking why audiences respond to him as a spiritual guide. This book reveals Bob Dylan as a major twentieth- and twenty-first-century religious thinker with a body of relevant work that goes far beyond a handful of gospel albums.
The Bible teems with nonhuman life, from its opening pages with God's creation of animals on the same day and out of the same earth as humans to its closing apocalyptic scenes of horses riding out of the sky. Animals are Adam's companions, Noah's shipmates, and Elijah's saviors. They are at the center of ancient Israel's religious life as sacrifices and yet, as Job discovers, beyond human dominion. It is an animal that saves Balaam from certain death by an angel's hand, and an animal that carries Jesus into Jerusalem. The Creator declares all of them good at the beginning, and since the Apostle Paul writes of God's eternal purposes for all things on earth, they are somehow part of a hoped-for eschatological restoration. So why are animals so often ignored in Christian moral discourse? In its theological thinking and faith-motivated praxis, human-centeredness typically results in the complete erasure of the nonhuman. This book argues that this exclusion of animals is problematic for those who see the Bible as authoritative for the religious life. Instead, biblical literature bears witness to a more inclusive understanding of moral duty and faith-motivated largesse that extends also to Eden's other residents.
This book examines C. S. Lewis’s writings about animals, and the theological bases of his opposition to vivisection and other cruelties. It argues Genesis is central to many of these ethical musings and the book’s organization reflects this. It treats in turn Lewis’s creative approaches to the Garden of Eden, humanity’s “dominion” over the earth, and the loss of paradise with all the catastrophic consequences for animals it presaged. The book closes looking at Lewis’s vision of a more inclusive community. Though he left no comprehensive summary of his ideas, the Narnia adventures and science fiction trilogy, scattered poems and his popular theology inspire affection and sympathy for the nonhuman. This study challenges scholars to reassess Lewis as not only a literary critic and children’s author but also an animal theologian of consequence, though there is much here for all fans of Mr. Bultitude and Reepicheep to explore.
The keystone of Christianity is Jesus's physical, bodily resurrection. Present-day scholars can be significantly challenged as they forage through voluminous documents on the resurrection of Jesus. The literature measures well over seven thousand sources in English-language books alone. This makes finding specific sources that are most relevant for specific scholarly purposes an arduous task. Even when a specific book is relevant, finding the parts of the book that are most relevant to the resurrection rather than other topics often requires additional effort. A Thematic Access-Oriented Bibliography of Jesus's Resurrection addresses these challenges in several ways. First, the bibliography organizes more than seven thousand English sources into twelve main categories and then thirty-four subcategories, which are designed to help you find the most relevant literature quickly and efficiently. Embedded are pro and con arguments which support efficient access through brief annotations and then annotate the diversity and complexity of the field of religion by including sources that represent a diverse range of views: theistic (e.g., Christian, Jewish, Muslim, etc.), agnostic, and nontheistic. The objective of this bibliography is to provide convenient access to relevant sources from a variety of perspectives, allowing you to browse or find the one source accurately and with ease.
Cells, Aging, and Human Disease is the first book to explore aging all the way from genes to clinical application, analyzing the fundamental cellular changes which underlie human age-related disease. With over 4,000 references, this text explores both the fundamental processes of human aging and the tissue-by-tissue pathology, detailing both breaking research and current state-of-the-art clinical interventions in aging and age-related disease. Far from merely sharing a common onset late in the lifespan, age-related diseases are linked by fundamental common characteristics at the genetic and cellular levels. Emphasizing human cell mechanisms, the first section presents and analyzes our current knowledege of telomere biology and cell senescence. In superb academic detail, the text brings the reader up to date on telomere maintenance, telomerase dynamics, and current research on cell senescence--and the general model--cell senescence as the central component in human senescence and cancer. For each human malignancy, the chapter reviews and analyzes all available data on telomeres and telomerase, as well as summarizing current work on their clinical application in both diagnosis and cancer therapy. The second edition, oriented by organs and tissues, explores the actual physiological impact of cell senescence and aging on clinical disease. After a summary of the literature on early aging syndromes--the progerias--the text reviews aging diseases (Alzheimer's dementia, osteoarthritis, atherosclerosis, immune aging, presbyopia, sarcopenia, etc.) in the context of the tissues in which they occur. Each of the ten clinical chapters--skin, cardiovascular system, bone and joints, hematopoetic and immune systems, endocrine, CNS, renal, muscle, GI, and eyes--examines what we know of their pathology, the role of cell sensescence, and medical interventions, both current and potential.
Given the popular-level conversations on phenomena like the Gospel of Thomas and Bart Ehrman’s Misquoting Jesus, as well as the current gap in evangelical scholarship on the origins of the New Testament, Michael Kruger’s Canon Revisited meets a significant need for an up-to-date work on canon by addressing recent developments in the field. He presents an academically rigorous yet accessible study of the New Testament canon that looks deeper than the traditional surveys of councils and creeds, mining the text itself for direction in understanding what the original authors and audiences believed the canon to be. Canon Revisited provides an evangelical introduction to the New Testament canon that can be used in seminary and college classrooms, and read by pastors and educated lay leaders alike. In contrast to the prior volumes on canon, this volume distinguishes itself by placing a substantial focus on the theology of canon as the context within which the historical evidence is evaluated and assessed. Rather than simply discussing the history of canon—rehashing the Patristic data yet again—Kruger develops a strong theological framework for affirming and authenticating the canon as authoritative. In effect, this work successfully unites both the theology and the historical development of the canon, ultimately serving as a practical defense for the authority of the New Testament books.
The Bible is the sacred scripture of Judaism and Christianity. In its pages we encounter some of the most memorable characters in world literature: Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Abraham and Sarah, Jacob, Moses, Samson and Delilah, David and Bathsheba, Job, Jesus, and Paul; some of the most well-known religious texts: the Ten Commandments, the Shema, Psalm 23, and the Sermon on the Mount; and some of the most important concepts in theology: covenant, chosenness, sin, atonement, and salvation. Over the ages, the Bible has also had an enormous influence on politics, on literature and the arts, and even on medicine and science. The word "Bible" basically means "book." Although usually formatted as a single book, the Bible is actually a collection of shorter books written over the course of more than a thousand years, an anthology of texts that Jews and Christians have considered especially authoritative, even inspired-"holy writ." Put simply, for Jews the Bible is a collection of some twenty-four books that by the second century CE had a special status. For Christians, the Bible includes these books, and some other Jewish religious writings, which together were eventually called "the Old Testament"; to them were added another twenty-seven early Christian texts, known as "the New Testament." Behind these simple definitions, however, lie many complexities, both because of the Bible's long history of formation and because of the different faith communities that consider it canonical"--
War opened and closed Scotland's greatest century: a pitiless part in the defeat of Naploeon in 1815, a huge blood-sacrifice for the sake of victory from 1914. In between came the greatest contributions to the progress and happiness of the rest of mankind that the Scots have ever made - in everything from the combine harvester to the mackintosh to anaesthesia. It was a supremely successful achieving society yet one not without deep flaws, in its urban poverty, its destruction of the environment, its religious intolerance, its moral hypocrisy, its crushing of Highland culture. Michael Fry shows, with an emphasis always on the human story, how a succession of deep crises undermined the usually tranquil and prosperous surface of life in Victorian Scotland to leave a legacy of paradox that the modern nation has even today yet to overcome.
Arturo Barea (1897-1957) is often seen as merely a spontaneous writer with a passion against injustice. In fact, he set out deliberately to write concretely and sensuously about himself in order to understand his mid-life nervous breakdown and about his generation as a way of explaining the underlying causes of the Spanish Civil War. With acute psychological insight, this self-taught boy from the slums, who left school at age 13, drew a unique portrait of Spanish society in the early 20th century. Barea's trilogy, The Forging of a Rebel was well received by George Orwell: "An excellent book...Senor Barea is one of the most valuable of the literary acquisitions that England has made as a result of Fascist persecution;" and from Gabriel Garcia Marquez: "One of the best novels written in Spanish." Barea is unusual in that he was one of the first Spanish working-class writers, one of the first autobiographers in Spain, and someone who published mainly in English even though all his attention was focused on Spain. In this groundbreaking biography, based on numerous interviews with people who knew Barea, author Michael Eaude revisits Barea's writing qualities and deficiencies in the context of stimulating intersections of literature and politics, and of Spain and England. He evaluates all Barea's major works, including: The Track, the story of Barea's time as a sergeant during the 1920s colonial war in Morocco * The Forge, the story of city and country, school and work, in the first years of the 20th century, told through the eyes of a child * The Clash, the story of Barea's experience as a censor during the Civil War * The Broken Root, his last novel, about exile and an imagined return to Madrid * and his short stories and essays. He also puts into perspective Barea's more than 800 talks for the BBC, and rebuts the slanders that Barea did not write his own books.
Hurray for Michael Palmer!' is how Michael Martin, the distinguished American philosopher, greeted Palmer's The Atheist's Primer (Lutterworth, 2012). Atheism for Beginners, by providing a 'coursebook for schools and colleges,' differs from its predecessor in being designed specifically for teachers and their students. Yet, although different in focus and format, the intention remains the same: to reinstate the importance of philosophy within the debate about God's existence and to act as a corrective tothe largely Darwinian criticisms levelled against religious belief by Richard Dawkins and the so-called 'new atheists'. So, in Palmer's lively history of atheism, extending from the ancient Greeks to the present day, we meet the enduring philosophical arguments against God and the great literature in which they are expressed. Atheism for Beginners is user-friendly and presumes no special grounding in philosophy. Throughout assistance is given by numerous aids to learning: there are exercises, marginal notes, essay questions, bibliographies and a glossary. Also provided are fourteen short biographies of famous atheists. In these respects Palmer follows the format first presented in his widely-read Moral Problems of 1991, long established as a core text inthe teaching of philosophy. In Atheism for Beginners, Palmer covers the main atheistic arguments, discussing issues such as creation, morality, evil, miracles and the motivations of belief. Particular attention is paid to the work of Hume, Marx, Nietzsche and Freud, with a special chapter devoted to the development of 'disproof atheism'. Atheism is often criticized for being unduly pessimistic: that without God there is nothing to look forward to, no life after death, no final righting of wrongs and no hope of salvation. But this, Palmer argues, is 'a slander against the atheistic outlook'. He concludes, therefore, on a positive note, explaining that happiness and personal fulfilment are to be found in the very materialism that religious belief rejects.
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