This book asks: Can the study of religion be justified? It poses this question on the view that scholarship in religion, especially work in "theory and method," is preoccupied with matters of methodological procedure and thus inarticulate about the goals that can justify the study of religion and motivate scholarship in the field. For that reason, it insists, the field suffers from a crisis of rationale. The book identifies six prevailing methodologies in the field, each of which it critically examines as symptomatic of this crisis, on the way toward offering an alternative framework for thinking about purposes for studying religion. Shadowing these methodologies is a Weberian scientific ideal for studying religion, one that privileges value-neutrality. This ideal poses obstacles to making justificatory claims on behalf of studying religion and fortifies a repressive conscience about thinking normatively within the field's regime of truth. After making these points, the chapter describes the book's alternative framework, Critical Humanism, especially how it theorizes about the ends rather than the means of humanistic scholarship and offers a basis for thinking about the ethics of Religious Studies as held together by four values: Post-critical Reasoning, Social Criticism, Cross-cultural Fluency, and Environmental Responsibility. Ordered to such purposes, the book argues, the study of religion can imagine itself as a valuable and desirable enterprise so that scholars of religion can relax their commitment to matters of methodological procedure and avow the values of studying religion"--
Friends and Other Strangers argues for expanding the field of religious ethics to address the normative dimensions of culture, interpersonal desires, friendships and family, and institutional and political relationships. Richard B. Miller urges religious ethicists to turn to cultural studies to broaden the range of the issues they address and to examine matters of cultural practice and cultural difference in critical and self-reflexive ways. Friends and Other Strangers critically discusses the ethics of ethnography; ethnocentrism, relativism, and moral criticism; empathy and the ethics of self-other attunement; indignation, empathy, and solidarity; the meaning of moral responsibility in relation to children and friends; civic virtue, war, and alterity; the normative and psychological dimensions of memory; and religion and democratic public life. Miller challenges distinctions between psyche and culture, self and other, and uses the concepts of intimacy and alterity as dialectical touchstones for examining the normative dimensions of self-other relationships. A wholly contemporary, global, and interdisciplinary work, Friends and Other Strangers illuminates aspects of moral life ethicists have otherwise overlooked.
With today's world torn by violence and conflict, Richard B. Miller's study of the ethics of war could not be more timely. Miller brings together the opposed traditions of pacifism and just-war theory and puts them into a much-needed dialogue on the ethics of war. Beginning with the duty of nonviolence as a point of convergence between the two rival traditions, Miller provides an opportunity for pacifists and just-war theorists to refine their views in a dialectical exchange over a set of ethical and social questions. From the interface of these two long- standing and seemingly incompatible traditions emerges a surprisingly fruitful discussion over a common set of values, problems, and interests: the presumption against harm, the relation of justice and order, the ethics of civil disobedience, the problem of self-righteousness in moral discourse about war, the ethics of nuclear deterrence, and the need for practical reasoning about the morality of war. Miller pays critical attention to thinkers such as Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, as well as to modern thinkers like H. Richard Niebuhr, Paul Ramsey, Martin Luther King, Jr., James Douglass, the Berrigans, William O'Brien, Michael Walzer, and James Childress. He demonstrates how pacifism and just-war tenets can be joined around both theoretical and practical issues. Interpretations of Conflict is a work of massive scholarship and careful reasoning that should interest philosophers, theologians, and religious ethicists alike. It enhances our moral literacy about injury, suffering, and killing, and offers a compelling dialectical approach to ethics in a pluralistic society. Richard B. Miller is assistant professor of religious studies at Indiana University.
A timely anthology by Christian ethicists and ecclesial groups who are concerned with the justice of war in the 20th century. Seeking to sharpen our moral literacy about the ethics of war, Pope Pius XII, the Niebuhrs, and U.S. Catholic and Methodist bishops address ethical issues relevant to modern warfare--obliteration bombing, selective conscientious objection, and nuclear deterrence.
Did the Gulf War defend moral principle or Western oil interests? Is violent pornography an act of free speech or an act of violence against women? In Casuistry and Modern Ethics, Richard B. Miller sheds new light on the potential of casuistry—case-based reasoning—for resolving these and other questions of conscience raised by the practical quandaries of modern life. Rejecting the packaging of moral experience within simple descriptions and inflexible principles, Miller argues instead for identifying and making sense of the ethically salient features of individual cases. Because this practical approach must cope with a diverse array of experiences, Miller draws on a wide variety of diagnostic tools from such fields as philosophy of science, legal reasoning, theology, literary theory, hermeneutics, and moral philosophy. Opening new avenues for practical reasoning, Miller's interdisciplinary work will challenge scholars who are interested in the intersections of ethics and political philosophy, cultural criticism, and debates about method in religion and morality.
Richard B. Miller returns to the basic tenets of liberalism to divine an ethical response to religious extremism. He questions how we should think about the claims and aspirations of political religions, especially when they conflict so deeply with liberal norms and practices, and he suggests how liberal critics can speak confidently in ways that respect cultural and religious difference. --from publisher description.
Because the discipline of medical ethics has developed with autonomy as its foundation, the field has ignored pediatric ethics. The book is resoundingly successful in its effort to rectify this problem.... [A] pleasure to read." -- Eric D. Kodish, M.D., Director, Rainbow Center for Pediatric Ethics, Case Western Reserve University Using a form of medical ethnography to investigate a variety of pediatric contexts, Richard B. Miller tests the fit of different ethical approaches in various medical settings to arrive at a new paradigm for how best to care for children. Miller contends that the principle of beneficence must take priority over autonomy in the treatment of children. Yet what is best for the child is a decision that doctors cannot make alone. In making and implementing such decisions, Miller argues, doctors must become part of a "therapeutic alliance" with families and the child undergoing medical care to come up with the best solution. Children, Ethics, and Modern Medicine combines strong philosophical argumentation with firsthand knowledge of the issues facing children and families in pediatric care. This book will be an invaluable asset to medical ethicists and practitioners in pediatric care, as well as parents struggling with ethical issues in the care of their children.
Training Soprano Voices provides a complete and reliable system for training each type of soprano voice. Designed as a practical program for singers, teachers, and voice professionals, it couples historic vocal pedagogy with the latest research on the singing voice, emphasizing the special nature of the soprano voice and the proper physiological functioning for vocal proficiency. Renowned singing teacher Richard Miller supplies a detailed description for each of the nine categories of soprano voices. For each category he then surveys the appropriate literature and provides an effective system for voice building, including techniques for breath management, vibratory response, resonance balancing, language articulation, vocal agility, sostenuto, proper vocal registration, and dynamic control. The book concludes with a daily regimen of vocal development for healthy singing and artistic performance. It also features dozens of technical exercises, vocalization material taken from the performance literature, and numerous anatomical illustrations. Unique in its focus on a single voice, Training Soprano Voices is likely to set the standard in voice training for years to come.
This illustrated collection offers fascinating insight on restoring the wolf population to the Southern Rockies. Detailed reports by wildlife biologists, geographers, legal and policy experts, and conservationists provide a comprehensive look at not only the ecological imperatives, but also the history, legal framework, and public attitudes affecting the future of wolves.
This widely adopted and accessible introductory text for counselors-in-training and emerging researchers provides a foundational understanding of the primary research methods used in counseling and how these concepts can be applied to research design. Writing in a clear and conversational tone, the authors emphasize the importance of ethics and multicultural issues in informing research, demonstrate a professional counselor identity within the framework of research, and outline specific evidence-based and empirically supported findings for counseling practice. This book contains four parts tht explain the practitioner-scholar model and the research process, quantitative and qualitative research methodology and design, and research measurement and program evaluation. Key features include a discussion of the fundamentals of statistics, practical research design illustrations in each chapter, guidelines for the development of an initial study, and suggested activities that synthesize and apply chapter content. New to this edition is a glossary to assist readers with the technical terms discussed in the text and a test manual and PowerPoints for instructors' use, which are available by request from the American Counseling Association. *Requests for digital versions from ACA can be found on www.wiley.com *To purchase print copies, please visit the ACA website here *Reproduction requests for material from books published by ACA should be directed to permissions@counseling.org
Dagger argues for a republican liberalism that, while celebrating the liberal heritage of autonomy and rights, solidly places these within social relations and obligations, which while ubiquitous, are often obscured and forgotten.
Inductive Bible Study provides a step-by-step approach to Bible study based on a three-part interpretive framework--observation, interpretation, and application.
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