How Not To Be Secular

Author : James K. A. Smith
Publisher : Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Page : 160 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2014-04-23
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780802867612

Get Book

How (Not) to Be Secular by James K. A. Smith Pdf

How (Not) to Be Secular is what Jamie Smith calls "your hitchhiker's guide to the present" -- it is both a reading guide to Charles Taylor's monumental work A Secular Age and philosophical guidance on how we might learn to live in our times. Taylor's landmark book A Secular Age (2007) provides a monumental, incisive analysis of what it means to live in the post-Christian present -- a pluralist world of competing beliefs and growing unbelief. Jamie Smith's book is a compact field guide to Taylor's insightful study of the secular, making that very significant but daunting work accessible to a wide array of readers. Even more, though, Smith's How (Not) to Be Secular is a practical philosophical guidebook, a kind of how-to manual on how to live in our secular age. It ultimately offers us an adventure in self-understanding and maps out a way to get our bearings in today's secular culture, no matter who "we" are -- whether believers or skeptics, devout or doubting, self-assured or puzzled and confused. This is a book for any thinking person to chew on.

Author : Charles Taylor
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 889 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2018-09-17
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780674986916

Get Book

A Secular Age by Charles Taylor Pdf

The place of religion in society has changed profoundly in the last few centuries, particularly in the West. In what will be a defining book for our time, Taylor takes up the question of what these changes mean, and what, precisely, happens when a society becomes one in which faith is only one human possibility among others.

Author : Jacques Berlinerblau
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Page : 341 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2012
Category : History
ISBN : 9780547473345

Get Book

How to Be Secular by Jacques Berlinerblau Pdf

Argues that a return to a more secular America will promote religious diversity and freedom, and help eliminate the widening divide between religious conservatives and staunch atheists.

Author : James K. A. Smith
Publisher : Brazos Press
Page : 295 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 2019-10-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781493419968

Get Book

On the Road with Saint Augustine by James K. A. Smith Pdf

★ Publishers Weekly starred review One of the Top 100 Books and One of the 5 Best Books in Religion for 2019, Publishers Weekly Christianity Today 2020 Book Award Winner (Spiritual Formation) Outreach 2020 Resource of the Year (Spiritual Growth) Foreword INDIES 2019 Honorable Mention for Religion This is not a book about Saint Augustine. In a way, it's a book Augustine has written about each of us. Popular speaker and award-winning author James K. A. Smith has spent time on the road with Augustine, and he invites us to take this journey too, for this ancient African thinker knows far more about us than we might expect. Following Smith's successful You Are What You Love, this book shows how Augustine can be a pilgrim guide to a spirituality that meets the complicated world we live in. Augustine, says Smith, is the patron saint of restless hearts--a guide who has been there, asked our questions, and knows our frustrations and failed pursuits. Augustine spent a lifetime searching for his heart's true home and he can help us find our way. "What makes Augustine a guide worth considering," says Smith, "is that he knows where home is, where rest can be found, what peace feels like, even if it is sometimes ephemeral and elusive along the way." Addressing believers and skeptics alike, this book shows how Augustine's timeless wisdom speaks to the worries and struggles of contemporary life, covering topics such as ambition, sex, friendship, freedom, parenthood, and death. As Smith vividly and colorfully brings Augustine to life for 21st-century readers, he also offers a fresh articulation of Christianity that speaks to our deepest hungers, fears, and hopes.

Author : Barry Alexander Kosmin,Ariela Keysar
Publisher : ISSSC
Page : 165 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2007
Category : Secularism
ISBN : 9780979481604

Get Book

Secularism & Secularity by Barry Alexander Kosmin,Ariela Keysar Pdf

Author : James K.A. Smith
Publisher : Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Page : 187 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2009-06-04
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780802864079

Get Book

The Devil Reads Derrida - and Other Essays on the University, the Church, Politics, and the Arts by James K.A. Smith Pdf

We hear a lot these days about the quest for alternative sources of energy. Has anyone considered Jamie Smith? This whirling dervish of public philosophy generates enough intellectual energy to supply a middle-size city all by himself. John Wilson / editor of Books & Culture / By now, Jamie Smith is not just a leading philosophical or postmodern or Reformed theologian: he is simply a leading theologian. This volume shows that he has not only ascended to that height but also descended to a depth that terrifies most academics journalism. He offers a theology as everyday as the neighborhood, the movies, partisan politics, the university, and the street corner and with a twinkle in his eye he shows us Jesus lordship in each place. I hope others will not just read Jamie s book, but will go and do likewise. Jason Byassee / Center for Theology, Writing & Media, Duke Divinity School / A notable young voice in the academy, James K. A. Smith has consistently spoken to the church as the most important public for his intellectual work. Bringing together essays both thoughtful and entertaining, The Devil Reads Derrida displays some of Smith s most significant forays into the public arena. / In this engaging work Smith grapples with the Wild at Heart phenomenon and the challenges of secularization, deals with sex and consumerism, and comments on creative works from American Beauty and Harry Potter to A History of Violence and the poetry of Franz Wright. No matter what.

Author : Phil Zuckerman
Publisher : Penguin Books
Page : 290 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2015-10-27
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780143127932

Get Book

Living the Secular Life by Phil Zuckerman Pdf

A sociology professor examines the demographic shift that has led more Americans than ever before to embrace a nonreligious life and highlights the inspirational stories and beliefs that empower modern-day secular culture.

Author : Joseph Blankholm
Publisher : NYU Press
Page : 312 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2022-06-07
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781479809523

Get Book

The Secular Paradox by Joseph Blankholm Pdf

A radically new way of understanding secularism which explains why being secular can seem so strangely religious For much of America’s rapidly growing secular population, religion is an inescapable source of skepticism and discomfort. It shows up in politics and in holidays, but also in common events like weddings and funerals. In The Secular Paradox, Joseph Blankholm argues that, despite their desire to avoid religion, nonbelievers often seem religious because Christianity influences the culture around them so deeply. Relying on several years of ethnographic research among secular activists and organized nonbelievers in the United States, the volume explores how very secular people are ambivalent toward belief, community, ritual, conversion, and tradition. As they try to embrace what they share, secular people encounter, again and again, that they are becoming too religious. And as they reject religion, they feel they have lost too much. Trying to strike the right balance, secular people alternate between the two sides of their ambiguous condition: absolutely not religious and part of a religion-like secular tradition. Blankholm relies heavily on the voices of women and people of color to understand what it means to live with the secular paradox. The struggles of secular misfits—the people who mis-fit normative secularism in the United States—show that becoming secular means rejecting parts of life that resemble Christianity and embracing a European tradition that emphasizes reason and avoids emotion. Women, people of color, and secular people who have left non-Christian religions work against the limits and contradictions of secularism to create new ways of being secular that are transforming the American religious landscape. They are pioneering the most interesting and important forms of secular “religiosity” in America today.

Author : Abou Farman
Publisher : U of Minnesota Press
Page : 417 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2020-04-21
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781452961903

Get Book

On Not Dying by Abou Farman Pdf

An ethnographic exploration of technoscientific immortality Immortality has long been considered the domain of religion. But immortality projects have gained increasing legitimacy and power in the world of science and technology. With recent rapid advances in biology, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence, secular immortalists hope for and work toward a future without death. On Not Dying is an anthropological, historical, and philosophical exploration of immortality as a secular and scientific category. Based on an ethnography of immortalist communities—those who believe humans can extend their personal existence indefinitely through technological means—and an examination of other institutions involved at the end of life, Abou Farman argues that secular immortalism is an important site to explore the tensions inherent in secularism: how to accept death but extend life; knowing the future is open but your future is finite; that life has meaning but the universe is meaningless. As secularism denies a soul, an afterlife, and a cosmic purpose, conflicts arise around the relationship of mind and body, individual finitude and the infinity of time and the cosmos, and the purpose of life. Immortalism today, Farman argues, is shaped by these historical and culturally situated tensions. Immortalist projects go beyond extending life, confronting dualism and cosmic alienation by imagining (and producing) informatic selves separate from the biological body but connected to a cosmic unfolding. On Not Dying interrogates the social implications of technoscientific immortalism and raises important political questions. Whose life will be extended? Will these technologies be available to all, or will they reproduce racial and geopolitical hierarchies? As human life on earth is threatened in the Anthropocene, why should life be extended, and what will that prolonged existence look like?

Author : Michael Warner,Jonathan VanAntwerpen,Craig J. Calhoun
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 354 pages
File Size : 48,7 Mb
Release : 2010-03-15
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0674048571

Get Book

Varieties of Secularism in a Secular Age by Michael Warner,Jonathan VanAntwerpen,Craig J. Calhoun Pdf

“What does it mean to say that we live in a secular age?” This apparently simple question opens into the massive, provocative, and complex A Secular Age, where Charles Taylor positions secularism as a defining feature of the modern world, not the mere absence of religion, and casts light on the experience of transcendence that scientistic explanations of the world tend to neglect. In Varieties of Secularism in a Secular Age, a prominent and varied group of scholars chart the conversations in which A Secular Age intervenes and address wider questions of secularism and secularity. The distinguished contributors include Robert Bellah, José Casanova, Nilüfer Göle, William E. Connolly, Wendy Brown, Simon During, Colin Jager, Jon Butler, Jonathan Sheehan, Akeel Bilgrami, John Milbank, and Saba Mahmood. Varieties of Secularism in a Secular Age succeeds in conveying to readers the complexity of secularism while serving as an invaluable guide to a landmark book.

Author : Tom Krattenmaker
Publisher : Convergent Books
Page : 258 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2016
Category : Agnosticism
ISBN : 9781101906422

Get Book

Confessions of a Secular Jesus Follower by Tom Krattenmaker Pdf

Offers an argument for secular non-believers maintaining that following Jesus Christ as a teacher, example, and primary guide for living can serve to give meaning and direction to those who don't believe in the supernatural elements of Christianity.

Author : James K. A. Smith
Publisher : Baker Academic
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2009-08-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 1441211268

Get Book

Desiring the Kingdom (Cultural Liturgies) by James K. A. Smith Pdf

Malls, stadiums, and universities are actually liturgical structures that influence and shape our thoughts and affections. Humans--as Augustine noted--are "desiring agents," full of longings and passions; in brief, we are what we love. James K. A. Smith focuses on the themes of liturgy and desire in Desiring the Kingdom, the first book in what will be a three-volume set on the theology of culture. He redirects our yearnings to focus on the greatest good: God. Ultimately, Smith seeks to re-vision education through the process and practice of worship. Students of philosophy, theology, worldview, and culture will welcome Desiring the Kingdom, as will those involved in ministry and other interested readers.

Author : Mirjam Künkler,John Madeley,Shylashri Shankar
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 441 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2018-07-05
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781108417716

Get Book

A Secular Age Beyond the West by Mirjam Künkler,John Madeley,Shylashri Shankar Pdf

This book compares secularity in societies not shaped by Western Christianity, particularly in Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa.

Author : Craig Calhoun,Mark Juergensmeyer,Jonathan VanAntwerpen
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 322 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2011-08-25
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780199796687

Get Book

Rethinking Secularism by Craig Calhoun,Mark Juergensmeyer,Jonathan VanAntwerpen Pdf

This collection of essays examines how ''the secular'' is constituted and understood, and how new understandings of secularism and religion shape analytic perspectives in the social sciences, politics, and international affairs.

Author : Paul Cliteur
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 422 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2010-09-29
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781444390445

Get Book

The Secular Outlook by Paul Cliteur Pdf

The Secular Outlook: In Defense of Moral and Political Secularism shows how people can live together and overcome the challenge of religious terrorism by adopting a "secular outlook" on life and politics. Shows how secularism can answer the problem of religious terrorism Provides new perspectives on how religious minorities can be integrated into liberal democracies Reveals how secularism has gained a new political and moral significance. Also examines such topics as atheism, religious criticism and free speech