Peter C. Hodgson – författare

History of Christian Dogma is a translation of Ferdinand Christian Baur''s Lehrbuch der christlichen Dogmengeschichte, second edition, 1858. The Lehrbuch, which Baur himself prepared, summarizes in 400 pages his lectures on the history of Christian dogma, published post-humously in four volumes. Baur, professor of theology at the University of Tübingen from 1826 to 1860, brilliantly applied Hegelian categories to his historical studiesin New Testament, church history, and history of Christian dogma. According to Baur, "Dogma" is the rational articulation of the Christian "idea" or principle-the idea that God and humanity are united through Christ and reconciled in the faith of the spiritual community. Following an introduction on the concept and history of thehistory of dogma, the Lehrbuch treats three main periods: the dogma of the ancient church or the substantiality of dogma; the dogma of the Middle Ages or the dogma of inwardly reflected consciousness; and dogma in the modern era or dogma and free self-consciousness. The entire history is a progression in the self-articulation of dogma through conflict and resolution, moving gradually from objective to subjective forms and to the mediation of subject and object by the philosophers andtheologians of the early nineteenth century. The detailed analyses provide a wealth of information on individual thinkers and doctrines that is still relevant today.

Ferdinand Christian Baur (1792-1860), one of the great innovators in the study of the New Testament, argued that each of its books reflects the interests and tendencies of its author in a particular religio-historical milieu. A critique of the writings must precede any judgments about the historical validity of individual stories about Jesus in the Gospels. Thus Baur could move beyond the impasse created by Strauss''s Life of Jesus. Baur demonstrated that theGospel of John is not a historical document comparable to the Synoptic Gospels and cannot be used to reconstruct the teaching of Jesus, and that the Synoptic Gospels must be read critically and selectively. He applied the same principles to the Epistles, arguing that only four are genuinely Pauline(Galatians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, and Romans).Baur''s Lectures on New Testament Theology, delivered in Tübingen during the 1850s, summarize thirty years of his research. The lectures begin with an Introduction on the concept, history, and organization of New Testament theology. Part One is devoted to the teaching of Jesus, which Baur finds most reliably in Matthew. Part Two contains the teaching of the Apostles in three chronological periods. The first period presents the theological frameworks of the Apostle Paul and the Bookof Revelation; the second period, the frameworks of Hebrews, the Deutero-Pauline Epistles, James and Peter, the Synoptic Gospels and Acts; and the third period, those of the Pastoral Epistles and the Gospel of John.

Ferdinand Christian Baur (1792-1860), one of the great innovators in the study of the New Testament, argued that each of its books reflects the interests and tendencies of its author in a particular religio-historical milieu. A critique of the writings must precede any judgments about the historical validity of individual stories about Jesus in the Gospels. Thus Baur could move beyond the impasse created by Strauss''s Life of Jesus. Baur demonstrated that theGospel of John is not a historical document comparable to the Synoptic Gospels and cannot be used to reconstruct the teaching of Jesus, and that the Synoptic Gospels must be read critically and selectively. He applied the same principles to the Epistles, arguing that only four are genuinely Pauline(Galatians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, and Romans).Baur''s Lectures on New Testament Theology, delivered in Tübingen during the 1850s, summarize thirty years of his research. The lectures begin with an Introduction on the concept, history, and organization of New Testament theology. Part One is devoted to the teaching of Jesus, which Baur finds most reliably in Matthew. Part Two contains the teaching of the Apostles in three chronological periods. The first period presents the theological frameworks of the Apostle Paul and the Bookof Revelation; the second period, the frameworks of Hebrews, the Deutero-Pauline Epistles, James and Peter, the Synoptic Gospels and Acts; and the third period, those of the Pastoral Epistles and the Gospel of John.

Peter C. Hodgson explores Hegel''s bold vision of history as the progress of the consciousness of freedom. Following an introductory chapter on the textual sources, the key categories, and the modes of writing history that Hegel distinguishes, Hodgson presents a new interpretation of Hegel''s conception of freedom. Freedom is not simply a human production, but takes shape through the interweaving of the divine idea and human passions, and such freedom defines thepurpose of historical events in the midst of apparent chaos. Freedom is also a process that unfolds through stages of historical/cultural development and is oriented to an end that occurs within history (the ''kingdom of freedom''). The purpose and the process of history are tragic, however, because historyis also a ''slaughterhouse'' that shatters even the finest human creations and requires a constant rebuilding. Hegel''s God is not a supreme being or ''large entity'' but the ''true infinite'' that encompasses the finite. History manifests the rule of God (''providence''), and it functions as the justification of God (''theodicy''). But the God who rules in and is justified by history is a crucified God who takes the suffering, anguish, and evil of the world into and upon godself, accomplishingreconciliation in the midst of ongoing estrangement and inescapable death. Shapes of Freedom addresses these themes in the context of present-day questions about what they mean and whether they still have validity.

History of Christian Dogma is a translation of Ferdinand Christian Baur's Lehrbuch der christlichen Dogmengeschichte, second edition, 1858. The Lehrbuch, which Baur himself prepared, summarizes in 400 pages his lectures on the history of Christian dogma, published post-humously in four volumes. Baur, professor of theology at the University of Tübingen from 1826 to 1860, brilliantly applied Hegelian categories to his historical studies in New Testament, church history, and history of Christian dogma. According to Baur, "Dogma" is the rational articulation of the Christian "idea" or principle-the idea that God and humanity are united through Christ and reconciled in the faith of the spiritual community. Following an introduction on the concept and history of the history of dogma, the Lehrbuch treats three main periods: the dogma of the ancient church or the substantiality of dogma; the dogma of the Middle Ages or the dogma of inwardly reflected consciousness; and dogma in the modern era or dogma and free self-consciousness. The entire history is a progression in the self-articulation of dogma through conflict and resolution, moving gradually from objective to subjective forms and to the mediation of subject and object by the philosophers and theologians of the early nineteenth century. The detailed analyses provide a wealth of information on individual thinkers and doctrines that is still relevant today.

Ferdinand Christian Baur (1792-1860), one of the great innovators in the study of the New Testament, argued that each of its books reflects the interests and tendencies of its author in a particular religio-historical milieu. A critique of the writings must precede any judgments about the historical validity of individual stories about Jesus in the Gospels. Thus Baur could move beyond the impasse created by Strauss's Life of Jesus. Baur demonstrated that the Gospel of John is not a historical document comparable to the Synoptic Gospels and cannot be used to reconstruct the teaching of Jesus, and that the Synoptic Gospels must be read critically and selectively. He applied the same principles to the Epistles, arguing that only four are genuinely Pauline (Galatians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, and Romans).Baur's Lectures on New Testament Theology, delivered in Tübingen during the 1850s, summarize thirty years of his research. The lectures begin with an Introduction on the concept, history, and organization of New Testament theology. Part One is devoted to the teaching of Jesus, which Baur finds most reliably in Matthew. Part Two contains the teaching of the Apostles in three chronological periods. The first period presents the theological frameworks of the Apostle Paul and the Book of Revelation; the second period, the frameworks of Hebrews, the Deutero-Pauline Epistles, James and Peter, the Synoptic Gospels and Acts; and the third period, those of the Pastoral Epistles and the Gospel of John.

This edition makes available an entirely new version of Hegel's lectures on the development and scope of world history. Volume II presents Hegel's surviving manuscripts of his introduction to the lectures and the full transcription of the second series of lectures (1830-31). Hegel lectured several times on the philosophy of world history. His manuscripts of the introduction and transcriptions (by Griesheim and Hotho) of the Lectures of 1822-23 were published by OUP in 2011, based on critical editions prepared by Walter Jaeschke. Now the Lectures of 1831, from a transcription made by Karl Hegel (the philosopher's son), also edited by Jaeschke, are appearing in English. Brown and Hodgson's new translation is an essential resource for the English reader, and provides a fascinating account of the world as it was conceived by one of history's most influential philosophers. The Editorial Introduction surveys the history of the texts and provides an analytic summary of them, and editorial footnotes introduce readers to Hegel's many sources and allusions. For the first time an edition of these lectures is made available that permits critical scholarly study, one which translates to the needs of the general reader.

This edition makes available an entirely new version of Hegel's lectures on the development and scope of world history. Volume II presents Hegel's surviving manuscripts of his introduction to the lectures and the full transcription of the second series of lectures (1830-31). Hegel lectured several times on the philosophy of world history. His manuscripts of the introduction and transcriptions (by Griesheim and Hotho) of the Lectures of 1822-23 were published by OUP in 2011, based on critical editions prepared by Walter Jaeschke. Now the Lectures of 1831, from a transcription made by Karl Hegel (the philosopher's son), also edited by Jaeschke, are appearing in English. Brown and Hodgson's new translation is an essential resource for the English reader, and provides a fascinating account of the world as it was conceived by one of history's most influential philosophers. The Editorial Introduction surveys the history of the texts and provides an analytic summary of them, and editorial footnotes introduce readers to Hegel's many sources and allusions. For the first time an edition of these lectures is made available that permits critical scholarly study, one which translates to the needs of the general reader.

This edition makes available an entirely new version of Hegel's lectures on the development and scope of world history. Volume II presents Hegel's surviving manuscripts of his introduction to the lectures and the full transcription of the second series of lectures (1830-31). Hegel lectured several times on the philosophy of world history. His manuscripts of the introduction and transcriptions (by Griesheim and Hotho) of the Lectures of 1822-23 were published by OUP in 2011, based on critical editions prepared by Walter Jaeschke. Now the Lectures of 1831, from a transcription made by Karl Hegel (the philosopher's son), also edited by Jaeschke, are appearing in English. Brown and Hodgson's new translation is an essential resource for the English reader, and provides a fascinating account of the world as it was conceived by one of history's most influential philosophers. The Editorial Introduction surveys the history of the texts and provides an analytic summary of them, and editorial footnotes introduce readers to Hegel's many sources and allusions. For the first time an edition of these lectures is made available that permits critical scholarly study, one which translates to the needs of the general reader.

The Hegel Lectures SeriesSeries Editor: Peter C. Hodgson Hegel's lectures have had as great a historical impact as the works he himself published. Important elements of his system are elaborated only in the lectures, especially those given in Berlin during the last decade of his life. The original editors conflated materials from different sources and dates, obscuring the development and logic of Hegel's thought. The Hegel Lectures series is based on a selection of extant and recently discovered transcripts and manuscripts. Lectures from specific years are reconstructed so that the structure of Hegel's argument can be followed. Each volume presents an accurate new translation accompanied by an editorial introduction and annotations on the text, which make possible the identification of Hegel's many allusions and sources. Lectures on the Proofs of the Existence of GodHegel lectured on the proofs of the existence of God as a separate topic in 1829. He also discussed the proofs in the context of his lectures on the philosophy of religion (1821-31), where the different types of proofs were considered mostly in relation to specific religions. The text that he prepared for his lectures in 1829 was a fully formulated manuscript and appears to have been the first draft of a work that he intended to publish and for which he signed a contract shortly before his death in 1831. The 16 lectures include an introduction to the problem of the proofs and a detailed discussion of the cosmological proof. Philipp Marheineke published these lectures in 1832 as an appendix to the lectures on the philosophy of religion, together with an earlier manuscript fragment on the cosmological proof and the treatment of the teleological and ontological proofs as found in the 1831 philosophy of religion lectures. Hegel's 1829 lectures on the proofs are of particular importance because they represent what he actually wrote as distinct from auditors' transcriptions of oral lectures. Moreover, they come late in his career and offer his final and most seasoned thinking on a topic of obvious significance to him, that of the reality status of God and ways of knowing God. These materials show how Hegel conceived the connection between the cosmological, teleological, and ontological proofs. All of this material has been newly translated by Peter C. Hodgson from the German critical editions by Walter Jaeschke. This edition includes an editorial introduction, annotations on the text, and a glossary and bibliography.

Peter C. Hodgson engages the speculative reconstruction of Christian theology that is accomplished by Hegel's Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, and provides a close reading of the critical edition of the lectures. He analyses Hegel's concept of the object and purpose of the philosophy of religion, his critique of the theology of his time, his approach to Christianity within the framework of the concept of religion, his concept of God, his reconstruction of central Christian themes, and his placing of Christianity among the religions of the world. Hodgson makes a case for the contemporary theological significance of Hegel by identifying currently contested sites of interpretation and their Hegelian resolution.

Peter C. Hodgson engages the speculative reconstruction of Christian theology that is accomplished by Hegel's Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, and provides a close reading of the critical edition of the lectures. He analyses Hegel's concept of the object and purpose of the philosophy of religion, his critique of the theology of his time, his approach to Christianity within the framework of the concept of religion, his concept of God, his reconstruction of central Christian themes, and his placing of Christianity among the religions of the world. Hodgson makes a case for the contemporary theological significance of Hegel by identifying currently contested sites of interpretation and their Hegelian resolution.

The Hegel Lectures SeriesSeries Editor: Peter C. Hodgson Hegel's lectures have had as great a historical impact as the works he himself published. Important elements of his system are elaborated only in the lectures, especially those given in Berlin during the last decade of his life. The original editors conflated materials from different sources and dates, obscuring the development and logic of Hegel's thought. The Hegel Lectures series is based on a selection of extant and recently discovered transcripts and manuscripts. The original lecture series are reconstructed so that the structure of Hegel's argument can be followed. Each volume presents an accurate new translation accompanied by an editorial introduction and annotations on the text, which make possible the identification of Hegel's many allusions and sources. Lectures on the Philosophy of ReligionOne-Volume Edition, The Lectures of 1827Hegel's Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion represent the final and in some ways the decisive element of his entire philosophical system. In Peter C. Hodgson's masterly three-volume edition, being reissued in the Hegel Lectures Series, from which this volume is extracted, the structural integrity of the lectures - delivered in 1821, 1824, 1827, and 1831 - is established for the first time in an English critical edition based on a complete re-editing of the German sources by Walter Jaeschke. This one-volume edition presents the full text and footnotes of the 1827 lectures, making the work available in a convenient form for study.Of the lectures that can be fully reconstructed, those of 1827 are the clearest, most mature, and most accessible to nonspecialists. In them, readers will find Hegel engaged in lively debates and important refinements of his treatment of the concept of religion, the Oriental religions and Judaism, Christology, the Trinity, the God-world relationship, and many other topics.This edition contains an editorial introduction, critical annotations on the text and tables, bibliography, and glossary from the complete edition. The English translation has been prepared by a team of eminent Hegel scholars: Robert F. Brown, Peter C. Hodgson, and J. Michael Stewart, with the assistance of H. S. Harris.

The Hegel Lectures SeriesSeries Editor: Peter C. Hodgson Hegel's lectures have had as great a historical impact as the works he himself published. Important elements of his system are elaborated only in the lectures, especially those given in Berlin during the last decade of his life. The original editors conflated materials from different sources and dates, obscuring the development and logic of Hegel's thought. The Hegel Lectures series is based on a selection of extant and recently discovered transcripts and manuscripts. Lectures from specific years are reconstructed so that the structure of Hegel's argument can be followed. Each volume presents an accurate new translation accompanied by an editorial introduction and annotations on the text, which make possible the identification of Hegel's many allusions and sources. Hegel's Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion represent the final and in some ways the decisive element of his entire philosophical system. His conception and execution of the lectures differed significantly on each of the occasions he delivered them, in 1821, 1824, 1827, and 1831. The older editions introduced insoluble problems by conflating these materials into an editorially constructed text. The present volumes establish a critical edition by separating the series of lectures and presenting them as independent units on the basis of a complete re-editing of the sources by Walter Jaeschke. The English translation has been prepared by a team consisting of Robert F. Brown, Peter C. Hodgson, and J. Michael Stewart, with the assistance of H. S. Harris. Now widely recognized as the definitive English edition, it is being reissued by Oxford in the Hegel Lectures Series. The three volumes include editorial introductions, critical annotations on the text, textual variants, and tables, bibliography, and glossary.Hegel's 'Introduction' establishes the new discipline of philosophy of religion and positions it vis-à-vis the philosophical, theological, cultural, and epistemological issues of the time. 'The Concept of Religion' sets forth a speculative definition of religion and discusses the experience, concept, knowledge, and worship of God.

The Hegel Lectures SeriesSeries Editor: Peter C. Hodgson Hegel's lectures have had as great a historical impact as the works he himself published. Important elements of his system are elaborated only in the lectures, especially those given in Berlin during the last decade of his life. The original editors conflated materials from different sources and dates, obscuring the development and logic of Hegel's thought. The Hegel Lectures series is based on a selection of extant and recently discovered transcripts and manuscripts. Lectures from specific years are reconstructed so that the structure of Hegel's argument can be followed. Each volume presents an accurate new translation accompanied by an editorial introduction and annotations on the text, which make possible the identification of Hegel's many allusions and sources. Hegel's Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion represent the final and in some ways the decisive element of his entire philosophical system. His conception and execution of the lectures differed significantly on each of the occasions he delivered them, in 1821, 1824, 1827, and 1831. The older editions introduced insoluble problems by conflating these materials into an editorially constructed text. The present volumes establish a critical edition by separating the series of lectures and presenting them as independent units on the basis of a complete re-editing of the sources by Walter Jaeschke. The English translation has been prepared by a team consisting of Robert F. Brown, Peter C. Hodgson, and J. Michael Stewart, with the assistance of H. S. Harris. Now widely recognized as the definitive English edition, it is being reissued by Oxford in the Hegel Lectures Series. The three volumes include editorial introductions, critical annotations on the text, textual variants, and tables, bibliography, and glossary.'The Consummate Religion' is Hegel's name for Christianity, which he also designates 'the Revelatory Religion'. Here he offers a speculative interpretation of major Christian doctrines: the Trinity, creation, humanity, estrangement and evil, Christ, the Spirit, the spiritual community, church and world. These interpretations have had a powerful and controversial impact on modern theology.

This edition makes available an entirely new version of Hegel's lectures on the development and scope of world history. Volume I presents Hegel's surviving manuscripts of his introduction to the lectures and the full transcription of the first series of lectures (1822-23). These works treat the core of human history as the inexorable advance towards the establishment of a political state with just institutions-a state that consists of individuals with a free and fully-developed self-consciousness. Hegel interweaves major themes of spirit and culture-including social life, political systems, commerce, art and architecture, religion, and philosophy-with an historical account of peoples, dates, and events. Following spirit's quest for self-realization, the lectures presented here offer an imaginative voyage around the world, from the paternalistic, static realm of China to the cultural traditions of India; the vast but flawed political organization of the Persian Empire to Egypt and then the Orient; and the birth of freedom in the West to the Christian revelation of free political institutions emerging in the medieval and modern Germanic world. Brown and Hodgson's new translation is an essential resource for the English reader, and provides a fascinating account of the world as it was conceived by one of history's most influential philosophers. The Editorial Introduction surveys the history of the texts and provides an analytic summary of them, and editorial footnotes introduce readers to Hegel's many sources and allusions. For the first time an edition is made available that permits critical scholarly study, and translates to the needs of the general reader.

These lectures constitute the earliest version of Hegel's Philosophy of Right, one of the most influential works in Western political theory. They introduce a notion of civil society that has proven of inestimable importance to diverse philosophical and social agendas. This transcription of the lectures, which remained in obscurity until 1982, presents the philosopher's social thought with clarity and boldness. It differs in some significant respects from Hegel's own published version of 1821.Nowhere does Hegel make plainer the difference between his concept of objective spirit and traditional concepts of natural law or offer a more prominent treatment of the key notion of recognition. His description of poverty is more forceful and his critique of existing social conditions more thorough than in the published edition, which had to satisfy the Prussian censor. The strictly limited powers of the monarch are more clearly delineated in the Heidelberg lectures, and the arguments for a bicameral legislature are more explicit. Hegel formulates in a more dynamic way his understanding of the relationship between rationality and actuality--the rational is not what exists but what is coming into being--and sets forth more simply and clearly the central themes of his political philosophy--freedom, justice, and community. The Heidelberg lectures are an indispensable resource for understanding the edition of 1821 and an invaluable supplement to one of the great classics of political philosophy.

Peter C. Hodgson explores Hegel's bold vision of history as the progress of the consciousness of freedom. Following an introductory chapter on the textual sources, the key categories, and the modes of writing history that Hegel distinguishes, Hodgson presents a new interpretation of Hegel's conception of freedom. Freedom is not simply a human production, but takes shape through the interweaving of the divine idea and human passions, and such freedom defines the purpose of historical events in the midst of apparent chaos. Freedom is also a process that unfolds through stages of historical/cultural development and is oriented to an end that occurs within history (the 'kingdom of freedom'). The purpose and the process of history are tragic, however, because history is also a 'slaughterhouse' that shatters even the finest human creations and requires a constant rebuilding. Hegel's God is not a supreme being or 'large entity' but the 'true infinite' that encompasses the finite. History manifests the rule of God ('providence'), and it functions as the justification of God ('theodicy'). But the God who rules in and is justified by history is a crucified God who takes the suffering, anguish, and evil of the world into and upon godself, accomplishing reconciliation in the midst of ongoing estrangement and inescapable death. Shapes of Freedom addresses these themes in the context of present-day questions about what they mean and whether they still have validity.

The Hegel Lectures SeriesSeries Editor: Peter C. Hodgson Hegel's lectures have had as great a historical impact as the works he himself published. Important elements of his system are elaborated only in the lectures, especially those given in Berlin during the last decade of his life. The original editors conflated materials from different sources and dates, obscuring the development and logic of Hegel's thought. The Hegel Lectures series is based on a selection of extant and recently discovered transcripts and manuscripts. The original lecture series are reconstructed so that the structure of Hegel's argument can be followed. Each volume presents an accurate new translation accompanied by an editorial introduction and annotations on the text, which make possible the identification of Hegel's many allusions and sources. Lectures on the Proofs of the Existence of GodHegel lectured on the proofs of the existence of God as a separate topic in 1829. He also discussed the proofs in the context of his lectures on the philosophy of religion (1821-31), where the different types of proofs were considered mostly in relation to specific religions. The text that he prepared for his lectures in 1829 was a fully formulated manuscript and appears to have been the first draft of a work that he intended to publish and for which he signed a contract shortly before his death in 1831. The 16 lectures include an introduction to the problem of the proofs and a detailed discussion of the cosmological proof. Philipp Marheineke published these lectures in 1832 as an appendix to the lectures on the philosophy of religion, together with an earlier manuscript fragment on the cosmological proof and the treatment of the teleological and ontological proofs as found in the 1831 philosophy of religion lectures. Hegel's 1829 lectures on the proofs are of particular importance because they represent what he actually wrote as distinct from auditors' transcriptions of oral lectures. Moreover, they come late in his career and offer his final and most seasoned thinking on a topic of obvious significance to him, that of the reality status of God and ways of knowing God. These materials show how Hegel conceived the connection between the cosmological, teleological, and ontological proofs. All of this material has been newly translated by Peter C. Hodgson from the German critical editions by Walter Jaeschke. This edition includes an editorial introduction, annotations on the text, and a glossary and bibliography.

A new translation of F.C. Baur's prime religio-historical study, proposing a novel relationship between ancient Judaism, Christianity and Greco-Roman philosophy.Ferdinand Christian Baur's Die Christliche Gnosis, first published in 1835, is considered by many to be the most important book on Gnosticism published in the nineteenth century and is a pivotal work within Baur's canon. Baur's unique thesis of a link between ancient and modern religious philosophy, as well as his conception of Gnosticism - developed through dialogues with his predecessors and contemporaries - consolidate Christian Gnosis as an important contribution to Christian theology. In this seminal work, written over a hundred years before the manuscript discovery at Nag Hammadi, Baur classifies the gnostic systems in terms of how they conceive the relationship of Christianity to Judaism and paganism, describing them in detail. He then goes on to describe the criticism of and reaction to gnosis in church history, before contending with the modern religious philosophy of his time, discussing Boehme, Schelling, Schleiermacher and Hegel. Christian Gnosis is Baur's first great religio-historical study, and Robert Brown's masterful translation ensures the work is as impactful today as it was on its first publication.

For students, this new book may well prove to be the most important one-volume treatment of systematic theology since John Macquarrie's Principles of. Christian Theology. The approach it takes, however, is a very different one. Professor Hodgson believes that theology requires a continual process of interpretation that constructs new visions of Christian faith and practice from resources provided by scripture, tradition, reason and experience in the context of contemporary cultural challenges. The fundamental challenge of postmodernity seems to be the loss of any meaningful discourse about God. Yet in the crisis there may be hopeful signs, in the form of quests in connection with emancipation, ecology and dialogue, in search of freedom, love and wholeness. It is these that provide the structure for the book. Theology is drawn and driven by winds of the Spirit: an image which gives the book its title. The author compares theology with sailing, the ship of theology having no foundation other than itself, no external prop, but only the structural integrity and interplay of its component parts, enabling it to float and sail.And imagery apart, here is an always fascinating treatment of thinking theologically, the resources and dimensions of theology, the role of liberation and feminist theology, science and ecological sensibility, inter-religious dialogue, faith and reason, creation and christology and above all the doctrine of the presence of the living Spirit of Christ.

George Eliot was a deeply religious thinker, despite having abandoned orthodox forms of Christian belief, and religious themes and figures appear in all her novels. This study focuses on that religious part of her life and writings. Peter C Hodgson is the Charles G Finney Professor of Theology at Vanderbilt University. His many books include "Winds of the Spirit", "God in History", and "Revisioning the Church".

In this unique introduction, Peter Hodgson rethinks central Christian themes in relation to three sets of issues that confront humankind with increasing urgency: the struggle for justice; cultural and religious pluralism; and ecological and cosmological awareness. Hodgson assumes both the possibility and necessity of revisioning Christian faith under ever-changing circumstances, and notes that such reconstruction has occurred since the beginning of the Christian faith. He invites readers to actually participate in this theological revisioning, and he encourages the process by including practical exercises--critical thinking problems, collaborative projects, and interactions with contemporary challenges--in every chapter.

This book explores and affirms the religious dimension of education. Peter Hodgson argues that the passage of knowledge from teacher to student is in many ways analogous to God's method of imparting divine wisdom by leading the human spirit into its widest range of possibilities.