358 pages : 23 cm

Includes bibliographical references (pages 329-338) and index

pt. 1. Concepts of God -- 1. Search for the divine -- Theism and its critics -- Questions and answers -- The spiritual impulse -- God and religion -- Is God a thing? -- Naming the ultimate reality -- 2. God is everything : pantheism -- What is pantheism? -- One realm or two? -- God and nature -- The importance of place -- Diversity of opinion -- Related concepts -- Panentheism -- Animism -- Neo-paganism -- 3. God is many : polytheism -- The mythic vision -- Explaining the beginning -- Sumerians' myths of creation -- The Greek variation -- The ideas of a Pantheon -- Gods and mortals -- Division of labor -- Henotheism : many gods, one in charge -- The practice of polytheism -- Eastern perspectives -- 4. God is one : monotheism -- Early arrivals -- Egyptian monotheism -- Zoroastrianism -- Some Greek philosophers -- Plato -- Aristotle -- The Stoics -- Plotinus -- The power of one -- Transcendence vs. immanence -- Hebrew perspectives -- Christian perspectives -- Islamic perspectives -- Patterns of belief -- Consequences of monotheism -- 5. God in none : atheism -- Idle speculation? -- Xenophanes -- Carneades -- Saving belief through syncretism -- Reason and revelation -- The disenchantment of the West -- Anticlericalism -- Humanism -- Science -- Freethinkers and Deists -- Reasons for disbelief -- The problem of causes -- The problem of natural law -- The problem of design -- The problem of good and evil -- The problem of religion -- Who killed (what) God? -- Atheism and agnosticism -- Eastern perspectives

pt. 2. The concept of God in Judaism -- 6. God in the Hebrew scriptures -- Father Abraham -- A surprise visitor -- Promises, promises -- Promises kept -- God of history -- There's more to the story : Moses -- Way down in Egypt land -- God gets a name -- Yahweh the deliverer -- Flagging commitments -- The covenant idea -- A terrifying presence -- Terms of the covenant -- God gets a house -- God of the heroes and kings -- God of the prophets and priests -- 7. God in the Rabbinic tradition -- Leaving the promised land -- Occupied Palestine -- Zealots -- Sadducees -- Pharisees -- Essenes -- Other groups -- Rabbinical schools -- The Hebrew canon -- The Talmud -- The Oral Torah -- Mishnah -- Gemara -- Rashi's commentaries -- Tosafot -- Wrestling with God -- 8. God in Jewish mysticism -- The journey of Rabbi Akiba -- Seeing God -- Origins of Kabbalah -- The Book of Brightness -- Isaac ben Abraham -- Spanish mysticism -- God in the Book of Splendor -- Tikkun Olam (Restoring the world) -- Is mysticism accepted in Judaism? -- 9. God in Jewish thought -- Philo of Alexandria -- Rereading the Torah -- Mystical knowledge of God -- The Logos -- Rabbinical Judaism : challenges and responses -- The Karaites -- Saadia ben Joseph -- Judah Halevi -- The coming of the Faylasufs -- The world of Maimonides -- Jewish thought in modern times -- Baruch Spinoza -- Judische Wissenschaft -- The Haskalah -- 10. God in contemporary Judaism -- Looking for God in the diaspora -- The Sephardim and Mizrachim -- The Ashkenazim -- Hasidism -- Signs of the times -- Reform Judaism -- Conservative Judaism -- Orthodox Judaism -- The Haredim, or ultra-Orthodox -- Secular Judaism -- Judaism and Israel

pt. 3. The concept of God in Christianity -- 11. God in the Bible -- Jesus the messenger -- Rethinking the law of Moses -- It's what's inside that counts -- The kingdom of God -- Sin and repentance -- The message of love -- Jesus the minister -- Jews and everyone else -- A gentle healer -- Spiritual warfare -- Passing it on -- Jesus the Messiah -- Jesus foretold -- Early types of Christ -- The incarnation of God -- The meaning of atonement -- He's gone : what's next? -- 12. God in early Christian theology -- Christianity meets Greek culture -- Paul in Ephesus -- Neoplatonism -- Gnosticism -- Three is one -- Initial questions -- Warring camps -- The Nicene vision -- Irreconcilable differences? -- Finding words for God -- Who, exactly, is Jesus? -- Works of Augustine -- Confessions -- The city of God -- 13. God in Christian experience -- The way to God -- Asceticism -- Monasticism -- Sacramentalism -- Mysticism -- Augustine's vision of God -- Theresa's interior castle -- Gifts of the spirit -- Portraits of Jesus -- People, places, and things -- Sacred liturgy, sacred space -- Devotionals -- Pilgrimage -- Material culture -- 14. God in Christian thought -- Faith and reason -- Thomas Aquinas -- Thomism -- Summa theologiae -- Proofs of God's existence -- Questioning faith and reason -- Resurgence of mystery -- Toward a reformation -- Luther's work -- Theologians and mystics -- Disquisition and ecstasy -- Enlightened Christianity -- 15. God in modern Christian theology -- Christian existentialism -- The modern temper -- Kierkegaard's big questions -- From Heidegger to Tillich -- The new theology -- Fundamentalism -- Darwin and his critics -- Doctrines : inerrancy and dispensationalism -- The living spirit -- Process theology -- Liberation theology -- Feminist theology

pt. 4. The concept of God in Islam -- 16. God in the Qur'an -- An Arab prophet to the world -- Visitor on Mt. Hira -- A recitation -- Flight to Medina -- Back to Mecca -- Allah in the Qur'an -- Sacred language -- One God for everyone -- Ninety-nine beautiful names -- The straight path -- Meaning of Islam -- Way of the prophet -- Five pillars of faith -- A social vision -- 17. God in the Sunni tradition -- Preserving tradition -- Problems of succession -- Shi'a challenge -- The Umayyads -- The Abbasids -- Islam and Greek philosophy -- The saga of al-Ash'ari -- Emergence of Kalam, or theology -- The emergence of Falsafah, or philosophy -- Abu Nasr al-Farabi -- Abu Ali al-Husayn ibn Sina (a.k.a. Avicenna) -- Abu al-Walid Muhammad ibn Rushd (a.k.a. Averroës) -- Shari'ah : finding God in Islamic law -- 18. God in the Shi'ite tradition -- Partisans of Ali -- Points of departure -- The extremists -- Twelvers -- Seveners -- Role of Imam -- A guiding light -- Hidden away -- The Ulema -- Divine immanence -- Continuing revelation -- Awaiting the Mahdi -- Unity in the Ummah -- 19. God in Islamic mysticism -- Kernels and shells -- Signs and signposts -- A philosopher's second career -- Early excesses -- Correcting Falsafah -- A crisis of faith -- What al-Ghazzali saw -- The inner path -- Doing mysticism the Sufi way -- Eye of the heart -- Finding God in the Dhikr -- An eclipse of self -- Ibn Arabi -- Sufism and traditional Islam -- 20. God in Islamic renewal movements -- Islam and the West : a thumbnail sketch -- Wahhabism -- Mahdiyya -- Allah for modern times -- Muhammad Abduh -- Indian variations -- The Muslim brotherhood -- In the shade of the Qur'an -- Reform and revolution

pt. 5. The concept of God in Eastern religions -- 21. The Vedas and beyond -- Architecture of Hinduism and Buddhism -- God in the Vedas -- Vedic gods -- Gods and people -- The way to heaven -- God in the Upanishads -- The path supreme -- Unity with the one -- The absolute within -- Yoga : the path of God within -- Karma and the variety of human destinies -- 22. God in Hindu tradition -- God in the Gita : more than one path -- Karma yoga : way of works -- Dhyana yoga : way of meditation -- Jnana yoga : way of knowledge -- Bhakti yoga : way of devotion -- Dimensions of divinity -- Trimurti -- Bhakti traditions -- Saguna and Nirguna Brahman -- One, few, and many -- The cosmic cycle -- Hindu metaphysics -- Sankhya -- Shankara -- Ramanuja -- Challenges to tradition -- Jainism -- Buddhism -- Sikhism -- Hinduism today -- 23. God in Buddhist thought and practice -- In the beginning -- The charmed life of Siddhartha Gautama -- Witness to suffering -- Two unfruitful paths -- An awakening -- Reaching Nirvana -- Siddhartha as the Buddha -- Four noble truths -- All life entails suffering -- The cause of suffering is desire -- Removing desire removes suffering -- Follow the eightfold path to remove desire -- The eightfold path -- Rethinking Hindu metaphysics -- Nirvana and God -- Anatta -- Skandas -- Pratitya-Samutpada -- Lingering questions -- 14. God in Buddhist traditions -- Three jewels -- The Buddha -- The Dharma -- The Sangha -- Theravada Buddhism -- One Buddha at a time -- Phases of enlightenment -- Buddhaghosa and the path of purification -- Mahayana Buddhism-- Many Buddhas -- Perfection of wisdom -- Rise of the Bodhisattvas -- Mahayana schools -- Vajrayana : Tantric Buddhism -- Dhyana : Zen Buddhism -- Sukhavati : pure land Buddhism -- 15. God in East Asian religion and philosophy -- Popular belief in China -- Shang-Di : the Lord above -- Heaven -- Yin and Yang -- Ancestor spirits -- Taoism -- Inadequacy of words -- Ultimate reality -- We Wei : no action -- Confucianism -- Confucian virtues -- Legacies of Confucianism -- Mencius and Hsun Tzu -- Neo-Confucianism -- Confucianism and modernity -- I Ching -- East Asian Buddhism -- Japanese visions

pt. 6. Keeping the faith -- 26. The case against God in the modern world -- How can we know anything for sure? -- The trouble with proof -- Pascal's wager -- The Cartesian moment -- A scientific revolution -- The advent of atheism -- Scientific naturalism -- The idealists -- Kat to the rescue -- G.W.F. Hegel's absolute spirit -- Atheism's modern architects -- Arthur Schopenhauer : God as an illusion -- Ludwig Feuerbach : God as a projection -- Karl Marx : God as a drug -- Friedrich Nietzsche : God is dead -- A material world : Darwin and Freud -- Scientific study of religion -- 27. Rescuing belief in uncertain times -- The will to believe -- A reason to believe -- Seekers -- Help in times of need -- Meaning in tragedy -- A reason to go on living -- Power for living -- The politicization of God -- Appendixes -- A. Resources -- B. Glossary

plus-circle Add Review

comment

Reviews