This volume contains essays that examine the work and legacy of the Cambridge Platonists. The essays reappraise the ideas of this key group of English thinkers who served as a key link between the Renaissance and the modern era.The contributors examine the sources of the Cambridge Platonists and discuss their take-up in the eighteenth-century. Readers will learn about the intellectual formation of this philosophical group as well as the reception their ideas received. Coverage also...

Radical Orthodoxy is the most influential theological development in a generation. Many have been bewildered by the range and intensity of the writings which constitute this movement. This book spans the breadth of the history of thought discussed by Radical Orthodoxy, tackling the accuracy of the historical narratives on which their position depends. The distinguished contributors examine the history of thought as presented by the movement, offering a series of critiques of individual Rad...

Christianity has understood the environment as a gift to nurture and steward, a book of divine revelation disclosing the divine mind, a wild garden in need of cultivation and betterment, and as a resource for the creation of a new Eden. This Cambridge Companion details how Christianity, one of the world's most important religions, has shaped one of the existential issues of our age, the environment. Engaging with contemporary issues, including gender, traditional knowledge, and enchantment...

The first comparative treatment of the topic of līlā in Hindu and Christian traditions, this volume explores what it means to consider divine and human action under the categories of play, wit, drama, grace, and compassionGod at Play presents a theological exploration of the multifaceted motif of līlā across diverse Hindu and Christian landscapes and its wide-ranging connections to divine and human creativity. Given its ubiquity in Hindu ...

Sacrifice Imagined is an original exploration of the idea of sacrifice by one of the world's preeminent philosophers of religion.Despisers of religion have poured scorn upon the idea of sacrifice as an index of the irrational and wicked in religious practice. Nor does its secularised form seem much more appealing. One need only think of the appalling cult of sacrifice in numerous totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century. Yet sacrifice remains a part of our cultural an...

Notwithstanding their neglect in many histories of ideas in the West, the Cambridge Platonists constitute the most significant and influential group of thinkers in the Platonic tradition between the Florentine Renaissance and the Romantic Age. This anthology offers readers a unique, thematically structured compendium of their key texts, along with an extensive introduction and a detailed account of their legacy. The volume draws upon a resurgence of interest in thinkers such as Benjamin Wh...

The concept of participation in a transcendent domain of existence is central to the Platonic and the Judaeo-Christian traditions. It is how thinkers throughout history have justified existence itself, explaining temporal being vis-à-vis God. Yet in the wake of secularisation and the widespread phenomenon of disenchantment, this once ubiquitous and coveted notion has fallen into desuetude. The essays in this volume analyse and explore this key concept in the history of Western thought. The...

Henry More had an odd idea. Thinking about space, he realized it was invisible, for we see things in space but not space itself. It’s also immaterial, for matter exists in space but space is not itself material—try to grab it and it slips through your fingers. Space was also infinite and transcendent yet nonetheless omnipresent, for we cannot go anywhere except in and through space. But this was exactly how More saw God; God is invisible, immaterial, infinite, an...

Encyclopedia of PhilosophyTABLE OF CONTENTS: I. Introduction II. Branches of Philosophy III. Schools of Thoughts IV. Political Philosophy V. Ancient Philosophy VI. Medieval Philosophy VII. Modern Philosophy List of Philosophers Glossary I. IntroductionIntroduction: Western philosophy Philosophical doctrines Ethics and political philosophy in the West Applied philosophy Eastern philosophy African philosophyEastern and Western Philosophy: Eastern WesternHistory of Western Philosophy: Ancient...

A challenging new look at the great thinkers whose ides have shaped our civilizationFrom Socrates to Sartre presents a rousing and readable introduction to the lives, and times of the great philosophers. This thought-provoking book takes us from the inception of Western society in Plato’s Athens to today when the commanding power of Marxism has captured one third of the world. T. Z. Lavine, Elton Professor of Philosophy at George Washington University, makes philos...

Benedict de Spinoza (1632-77) was at once the father of the Enlightenment and the last sad guardian of the medieval world. In his brilliant synthesis of geometrical method, religious sentiment, and secular science, he attempted to reconcile the conflicting moral and intellectual demands of his epoch, and to present a vision of humanity as simultaneously bound by necessity and eternally free. In this book Roger Scruton presents a clear and systematic analysis of Spinoza's thought,and shows ...

'It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.'- AristotleThis illustrated guide showcases the major philosophers of the western tradition. Concise and informative, it provides an ideal introduction to their lives, ideas and the effect those ideas have had on the wider world.Both easy-to-use and a stimulating read, this book is an ideal reference for anybody interested in philosophy, and especially for tho...