The Mysteries of Religion: An Introduction to Philosophy Through Religion (New Scientist Guides)

Philosophy of religion too often confines itself to a few well-worn philosophical puzzles, such as the proof of God’s existence, and overworked examples which are usually drawn from Western Christianity. This book considers religion practice and expression in a number of cultural contexts, both familiar and exotic, from sacred texts to rites of passage, from the British Israel movement to spiritism and Aztec devil-worship. The author argues that, although there are many points on which religious persons disagree and no definite way of settling these disagreements, Neoplatonic theory about the world and our place in it does at least provide the context for debate. Is religion an irrational human attempt to disguise an essentially meaningless universe? Or is irrelgion itself unreasonable and a spiritual universe the best explanation? Using a wide range of examples, The Mysteries of Religion provides an invaluable philosophical background for a discussion of such fundamental questions. Cover Title Copyright Contents Preface Acknowledgements 1. Introduction On Being Religious Religion and Religions On Being Sacred Philosophical Analysis Further reading 2. The Natural History of Religion Sacred History and the Great Religions Naturalistic Explanation Sacred Explanations, and Extraterrestrials Natural Fact, Sacred Value and British Israel Religious Feeling and Intellectual Virtue Further reading 3. Rituals and Rites of Passage Beginnings and Endings The Logical Impossibility of Change Realism and Ritual Truths Further reading 4. Words and the Word Sentences and How They Mean Anti-Realists and Magicians The Three Ways The Way of Negation The Angel of the Book Science and Piety Further reading 5. New Souls and the Olympians One Self and Many Selves Hebrews and Hellenes Are There Really Gods? Further reading 6. Sins, Wickedness and Psychosis Morality and God’s Command Purity and Pollution Devotion and Atonement Selfhood and the God Within Religion as Psychosis? Further reading 7. Causality and Creation The Argument from Design Sectarians and Deists The Dragon in the Deeps The Real and the Unreal Further reading 8. War and the Problem of Evil The Problems of Evil Rewriting the Abrahamic Axioms Punishment War in Heaven Further reading 9. Prayer, Sacrifice and Time Before All Worlds Sharing in the Feast Contemplation and Worship The Eternal Return Humility and Self-Sacrifice Further reading 10. Household, Sex and Gender Due Order in Society and Cosmos Sex, Families and Phalansteries Mother-Goddess and Father-God Further reading 11. Death and Immortality Individuals and the Eternal Earth Souls Bodily Resurrection Love and the Individual Creature Reincarnation Waking Up Further reading 12. Religious Experience Emotional Participation Solitary Experience Santa Claus and Visionary Evidence Experiencing the Infinite The Way of Negation The Sense of Being Loved The Sense of Being Loved 13. The Future of Religion Prayer and Obedience This-Worldly Visions The End of the World Further reading 14. Reasons and Conclusions Reasons for Believing The Case against Heresy The Nature of Authority Pascal’s Wager Further reading Bibliography 0F 0 F 0 229 x 152 6" x 9" 390 0-631-13872-20-631-15492-2 ;35.00 (1985) ;8.50 45.00 15.95F 0 1987 85.0887.07F 0 'A wholly admirable and fascinating study.' Times Higher Education Supplement 'This book offers a refreshing change from much of the writing about religion done by philosophers ...can be recommended without hesitation to anyone prepared to think seriously about religion. (And would that all philosophers wrote as well and as elegantly as Stephen Clark.)' British Book News Stephen R.l. Clark. Includes Index. Bibliography: P. [261]-267.