Download Free Of Desires Dilemmas And Divinity Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Of Desires Dilemmas And Divinity and write the review.

In this groundbreaking study, Gary M. Ciuba examines how four of the South's most probing writers of twentieth-century fiction -- Katherine Anne Porter, Flannery O'Connor, Cormac McCarthy, and Walker Percy -- expose the roots of violence in southern culture. Ciuba draws on the paradigm of mimetic violence developed by cultural and literary critic René Girard, who maintains that individual human nature is shaped by the desire to imitate a model. Mimetic desire may lead in turn to rivalry, cruelty, and ultimately community-sanctioned -- and sometimes ritually sanctified -- victimization of those deemed outcasts. Ciuba offers an impressively broad intellectual discussion that gives universal cultural meaning to the southern experience of desire, violence, and divinity with which these four authors wrestled and out of which they wrote. In a comprehensive analysis of Porter's semiautobiographical Miranda stories, Ciuba focuses on the prescribed role of women that Miranda imitates and ultimately escapes. O'Connor's The Violent Bear It Away reveals three characters whose scandalous animosity caused by religious rivalry leads to the unbearable stumbling block of violence. McCarthy's protagonist in Child of God, Lester Ballard, appears as the culmination of a long tradition of the sacred violence of southern religion, twisted into his own bloody faith. And Percy's The Thanatos Syndrome brings Ciuba's discussion back to the victim, in Tom Moore's renunciation of a society in which scapegoating threatens to become the foundation of a new social regime. From nostalgia for the old order to visions of a utopian tomorrow, these authors have imagined the interrelationship of desire, antagonism, and religion throughout southern history. Ciuba's insights offer new ways of reading Porter, O'Connor, McCarthy, and Percy as well as their contemporaries who inhabited the same culture of violence -- violence desired, dreaded, denied, and deified.
The development of modern culture along subjectivist lines has led to an analogue of psychological narcissism--to philosophical narcissism--in the culture. The intrinsic value of human cultural activity has been lost, and the intellectual foundation of the modern world-view has been destroyed. Cahoone carefully develops the idea of subjectivity and narcissism using psychological theory, the dialectical theory of the Frankfurt school, and historians. The core of his interpretive argument is developed through careful analysis of Descartes and Kant as well as of Husserl and Heidegger. Cahoone maintains a carefully controlled continuity between the analysis of philosophic positions and what they reveal about culture. In the conclusion, he moves toward a recreation of culture in non-subjectivist naturalism. Insights are drawn from Freud, Fairbairne, Winnicott, Kohut, Sennett, Lasch, Horkheimer, Adorno, Dewey, Cassirer, Kundera, and Buchler.
Detailed and enlightening study of the role of desire or "Joy" in the theological and philosophical works of C.S. Lewis.
Feminist Philosophy of Religion: Critical Readings brings together key new writings in this growing field.
My wife and I have been born again saved Christians for over 20 years. We do have a non-denominational church home and we study The Holy Bible together regularly at home. We have a blended family with 3 adult children and 2 grandchildren. I have worked for 20 years in electric operations and transportation. I have a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology and am currently pursuing a Master's Degree in Christian Apologetics. The book is primarily about relationship issues that result from illegitimate people groupings in modern day society. The book has an overwhelming focus on the spiritual impact on people, when pride based problems are not properly addressed with a biblical relationship with Jesus Christ. I have personally struggled with many of the people grouping issues discussed in this book; pride has been one such stumbling block for me. Creating this book has in part been a personal journey for me, helping me to heal some of the wounds inflicted upon me by others, as well as heal wounds I’ve caused others. It is my sincere hope and prayer that your journey through this book will heal you and your loved ones, as it has done for me and my family. With God’s help, Christians and Non-Christians alike can all benefit from the experiences, tools, and methods in this book by improving themselves spiritually, and by improving the quality of their relationships with others
Today's modern technology and scientific knowledge contradicts all religious dogma created in ancient times by ignorant and superstitious people who had just learned to write. Modern science can test the strength of one's faith and it can make him a skeptic, causing him to discard the religious beliefs of his family for generations past. Deep religious experiences (or self-induced delusions) can be explained by physical, psychological, biological and medical sciences today. "Evil" or "Sin" is the result of social and mental conditions and can be corrected with education and medication today and without the help of an imaginary "God". To quote Mark Twain "Faith is to believe in what you know for sure is not true". The GOD Dilemma is an unscientific investigation to justify believing in religion today and in particular the Christian faith. It argues that scientific and logical discussions about religion and the existence of God are futile; however, we cannot stop thinking about it. Humans are (maybe) born with a faith in God's existence and with a conscience that tells them which is morally and ethically right and which is not. Author Thomas used to believe in religion, God, and Christianity through his teenage years, but even if he learned to ignore it during his 50 adult years, he never consciously discarded his Christian faith. He now shares his investigations and attempts to believe in Jesus Christ once again, despite today's knowledge of the universe and evolution and by ignoring the sanctimonious behavior of fundamentalist US Christians. In the international scene, Thomas believes that the US wars since WWII cannot be justified by the life and the teachings of Jesus Christ. There is an underlying moral claim by fundamentalist Christian Americans that its actions are justified by Jesus and Christianity. The new phenomenon called "Christian Zionism" which requires the removal of Palestinians from their homeland to create and expand Israel to enable the second coming of Christ, categorically contradicts the teachings of Jesus in the four Gospels. Zionism is based on the Old Testament Bible (OTB) and Revelations in the New Testament both of which are scientifically ridiculous. The OTB is also historically questionable (about a God interacting with his only chosen people in Middle East) and morally criminal (God sponsored and assisted armed robbery and genocide to create Israel ancient and modern) by today's legal and ethical standards. Why has the life and teachings of Jesus Christ not produced universal love and non-violence among Christians? Why are American Christians the most active supporters of (or not speaking out against) the wars, bombing and destruction by the USA since WWII? Are Ashkenazi European Jews really the descendants of Semitic slaves from Egypt? What were the reasons for anti-Semitism and the Holocaust in "Christian" Europe of the past? Why is the European Union and the US punishing the Palestinians for the Holocaust crimes in Europe? Can God's orders in the Bible be legally used by the United Nations to recreate Israel again in the 20th century after 3000 years by getting rid of Palestinians? The book seeks to inform and provoke critical thinking of the readers through this investigation into religion and God and, in particular, the violent, intolerant and self-righteous behavior of Christians for centuries past and even in today's enlightened age using the source of the Christian religion the Bible.
In 1589 the Privy Council encouraged the Archbishop of Canterbury to take steps to control the theatres, which had offended authority by putting on plays which addressed 'certen matters of Divinytie and of State unfitt to be suffred'. How had questions of divinity and state become entangled? The Reformation had invested the English Crown with supremacy over the Church, and religious belief had thus been transformed into a political statement. In the plentiful chronicle literature of the sixteenth-century, questions of monarchical legitimacy and religious orthodoxy became intertwined as a consequence of that demand for a usable national past created by the high political developments of the 1530s. Divinity and State explores the consequences of these events in the English historiography and historical drama of the sixteenth century. It is divided into four parts. In the first, the impact of reformed religion on narratives of the national past is measured and described. Part II examines how the entanglement of the national past and reformed religion was reflected in historical drama from Bale to the early years of James I, and focuses on two paradigmatic characters: the sanctified monarch and the martyred subject. Part III considers Shakespeare's history plays in the light of the preceding discussion, and finds that Shakespeare's career as a historical dramatist shows him eventually re-shaping the history play with great audacity. Part IV corroborates this reading of Shakespeare's later history plays by reference to the dramatic ripostes they provoked.
Where Are Critical Theory and the Social Justice Movement Taking Us? Critical theory and its expression in fields such as critical race theory, critical pedagogy, and queer theory are having a profound impact on our culture. Contemporary critical theory’s ideas about race, class, gender, identity, and justice have dramatically shaped how people think, act, and view one another—in Christian and secular spheres alike. In Critical Dilemma, authors Neil Shenvi and Pat Sawyer illuminate the origins and influences of contemporary critical theory, considering it in the light of clear reason and biblical orthodoxy. While acknowledging that it can provide some legitimate insights regarding race, class, and gender, Critical Dilemma exposes the false assumptions at the heart of critical theory, arguing that it poses a serious threat to both the church and society at large. Drawing on exhaustive research and careful analysis, Shenvi and Sawyer condemn racism, urge Christians to seek justice, and offer a path forward for racial healing and unity while also opposing critical theory’s manifold errors.
A mob of teens descends upon Paris in the thrall of a self-help author; a grotesque yard-sale statuette frees a dying man from his silence; the hottest club in town is staffed by angels. This is the uncanny world of The Divinity Gene, Matthew J. Trafford's debut story collection, and it bristles with humour, pathos, and imaginative power. Skewering urban culture even as it conjures up the magic in the mundane, the stories of The Divinity Gene map the frailty of the human heart. Caught in the crosshairs of faith and science, its characters-bereaved, sidelined, cast adrift-journey forth to undiscovered places, in search of something to believe in, someone to love, always with disarming results. A passionately devout scientist clones Jesus Christ from the DNA contained in holy relics; a man makes a Faustian cyber deal with the devil for the sake of his family; bereaved parents sign on for an unorthodox government reparations project following a school tragedy. Masterfully original, deeply human, The Divinity Gene introduces a bold and evocative new writer.
As millions of readers worldwide react to Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, so do many scholars. The novel has become a proxy debate for two compelling scholarly and social issues of our time: the feminist/post-feminist challenge to patriarchal authority; and the textual construction of meaning and value. Presenting the feminine as both dominant and sacred brings attention to every text which argues for dominance or divinity. Traditional scholars are being challenged to defend their disciplines and practices, to reassert the authority of their knowledge base. Postmodern scholars are finding an opportunity to explain to the world at large how texts construct meaning and maintain power structures. These essays examine resistance to the sacred feminine in religious, cultural, and literary histories. Robert Davis explores the return of the goddess to academic and popular discussions. Deanna Thompson examines the apocryphal evidence brought into the debate by the novel. Rachel Wagner looks at the larger issue of postmodern textual authority, and how Brown’s novel has brought Biblical interpretation to popular awareness. Arlette Poland reviews current feminist and academic thinking on textual versus spiritual authority regarding the feminine divine. Other essays identify the elusive and misunderstood sacred feminine in religion and literature; in church teachings and practices; in the variant Grail stories; in the mystery genre itself. Together, these essays place the reaction to these issues into broader social and contemporary contexts.