In this provocative book, noted scholar G. A. Wells tells the story of Higher Criticism: the close study of the scriptures that reveals difficulties and discrepancies. Wells traces the discipline’s German beginnings, exploring the problems in the New Testament that prompted scholars to revise traditional theories of the scriptures’ origins. Wells then traces the development and reception of these views from the 18th century t ...
"Using his probing intelligence to criticize the views of pundits from Locke to Chomsky, from Ayer to religious apologists, G. A. Wells has produced a lively essay on the persistent mistakes that have been made in understanding the relations among things, words, and ideas. The chapter entitled 'Language and the Bible' is a gem. It should delight skeptics even as it challenges believers. What's in a Name? shows, as if it still ...
One of the great tasks of Mortimer Adler’s illustrious life was his search for a watertight proof of the existence of God. Adler believed that his search had been successful.Adler spent years studying the classic proofs of God’s existence, especially Aquinas’s Five Ways, and found shortcomings in all of them, as conventionally understood. But he thought that some of them contained ideas which, if properly developed, ...
Atheism Explained explores the claims made both for and against the existence of God. On the pro side: that the wonders of the world can only be explained by an intelligent creator; that the universe had to start somewhere; telepathy, out-of-body experiences, and other paranormal phenomena demonstrate the existence of a spirit world; and that those who experience God directly provide evidence as real as any physical finding. After disputing thes ...
History illustrates the power of religion to bring about change. Mary Evelyn Tucker describes how world religions have begun to move from a focus on God-human and human-human relations to encompass human-earth relations. She argues that, in light of the environmental crisis, religion should move from isolated orthodoxy to interrelated dialogue and use its authority for liberation rather than oppression. ...
Lady at the Window chronicles the last Holy Week in Julian of Norwich’s life. In her secret journal (because women are forbidden to write in English) the great English mystic chronicles her inner life, including her relationship with the “courteous Lord,” who when she was young was a constant presence in her life, but now in her old age feels to be more of a constant absence, Deus Absconditus. There are two windows in Lady Julia ...
The Complete Prayers of St. Francis and St. Clare, with Selections from Brother Juniper, St. Anthony of Padua, and Other Early Franciscans We do not immediately associate Francis and Clare with prayer and praying. St. Francis, according to the most common legends, rarely sat still. St. Clare did, more so, but that was probably mostly because of the convent and the grille and the conventions of the time: she couldn’t be a walkabout friar. ...
