C. Stephen Evans provides a clear, readable introduction to Søren Kierkegaard (1813–55) as a philosopher and thinker. His book is organised around Kierkegaard's concept of the three 'stages' or 'spheres' of human existence, which provide both a developmental account of the human self and an understanding of three rival views of human life and its meaning. Evans also discusses such important …
The third edition of An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion provides a critical examination of some fundamental questions posed by religious belief: What does belief in God amounts to? Can God's existence be proved? Is there life after death? Brian Davies considers these questions and many others, sometimes offering provocative answers of his own, but more often giving readers room to…
Theodor Adorno once wrote an essay to "defend Bach against his devotees." In this book Dana Villa does the same for Hannah Arendt, whose sweeping reconceptualization of the nature and value of political action, he argues, has been covered over and domesticated by admirers (including critical theorists, communitarians, and participatory democrats) who had hoped to enlist her in their less radica…
This book argues that the understanding and explanation of religion are always historically contingent. Grounded in the work of Bakhtin and Ricoeur, Flood positions the academic study of religion within contemporary debates in the social sciences and humanities concerning modernity and postmodernity, particularly contested issues regarding truth and knowledge. It challenges the view that religi…
An introduction to the history of religions surveys the attitudes toward religion expressed by thinkers, scholars, and writers from classical antiquity to the twentieth century