Peter Candler – författare

In Theology, Rhetoric, Manuduction, Peter Candler re-reads a number of medieval texts and demonstrates that they were intended as vehicles not for the transmission of data, but for the leading of readers to contemplation of God. Like medieval maps with their intricate illustrations, skewed proportions and omissions of details that to us today seem crucial, medieval works of theology were designed not to depict an objective overview for disinterested study, but were meant to provide an itinerary for individuals traveling a specific route. To read was to be taken by the hand, in a process called manuduction, and to join fellow travellers on a journey to a particular goal. Candler is recovering this understanding of reading and doing theology and illustrates how it can enrich our present understanding of great works of medieval scholarship. He begins with the invention of printing in the 16th Century and the change of the bible from liturgy in worship and community to a physical object, a book and with it the birth of our modern understanding of scripture. He then turns to Augustine's understanding of rhetoric, examined in a critique of the Confessions. Then 2 texts, Glossa Ordinaria (a 12th C glossed bible) and Aquinas' Summa Theologiae are read in terms of the concepts of memory and itinerary. The former Candler believes is an "iconic illustration of the mutual indwelling of Christ and the Church", rendering the notion of separating Scripture from tradition absurd and the latter he views as a "curriculum of persuasion" which leads readers by manuduction along a path towards union with God.

The Veritas Series brings to market original volumes all engaging in critical questions of pressing concern to both philosophers, theologians, biologists, economists and more. This volume of essays brings together a star cast of authors discussing the relationship between belief and metaphysics and its significance from both a theological and a philosophical point of view. The series aims to illustrate that without theology, something essential is lost in our account of such categories – not only in an abstract way but in the way in which we inhabit the world. The Veritas Series refuses to accept disciplinary isolation: both for theology and for other disciplines.

Marcus Pound’s book develops a specifically theological form of psychotherapy rooted in liturgy and arising from engagement with postmodern psychoanalysis. Jacques Lacan’s claim that ‘the unconscious is structured like a language’ radically challenged psychoanalysis and Pound uses this as the basis for his work in this volume. Postmodern psychoanalysis has been anticipated by theology, and Pound goes further in this claim to argue there has been a return to theology in psychoanalysis

In recent philosophical discourse, there has been a proliferation of work in the field of philosophy of religion, and in particular at the intersection between epistemology and philosophy of religion. Much of that interest has centred on the emergence of what has come to be known as 'Reformed Epistemology'. The central claim of Reformed epistemologists is that belief in God is properly basic. The purpose of the arguments offered by Reformed epistemologists is to oppose what Plantinga calls the 'de jure' objection to theistic belief - the idea that it is somehow irrational, a dereliction of epistemic duty, or in some other sense epistemically unacceptable, to believe in God. This objection is distinct from what Plantinga labels the 'de facto' objection - the objection that, whatever the rational status of belief in God, it is, in fact, a false belief. The primary goal of Reformed epistemology, then, is to defend Christian belief against the de jure objection, thereby showing that everything really depends on the truth of Christian belief. This book demonstrates the feasibility of combining the Reformed epistemologist's position with an argument for theism that the author draws from Charles Taylor's work. In it, he shows the value that would be added to the Reformed epistemologist's position by such a combination.

The Veritas Series brings to market original volumes engaging in critical questions of pressing concern to theologians as well as philosophers, biologists, economists, and representatives of other disciplines. Transcendence and Phenomenology presents a definitive collection of essays discussing the much debated ‘turn to theology’ in philosophy, most evident in phenomenology. Arguably the most pressing debate at the interface of philosophy and theology, this collection of essays makes a significant intervention in the on-going argument, gathering together some of the finest phenomenologists writing today. It also presents major criticisms of phenomenology in relation to theology, especially from John Milbank.