African American History and African American Theology
Stephen C. Finley
The history of African Americans is important in the formation of, but presents a challenge to, black theology. African American history provided a lens through which to view the world and ...
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The Age of Enlightenment
Alan Charles Kors
This article discusses the meanings, origin, context, scope, and central intellectual claims of atheism in the Age of the European Enlightenment. It emphasizes debates about proofs of the ...
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American Jewish History
Hasia Diner
American Jewish history as a field of scholarly inquiry takes as its subject-matter the experience of Jews in the United States and places it within the context of both modern Jewish ...
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Atheism and the Rise of Science
Taner Edis
Atheists, conservative theists, and religious liberals often read the history of science in ways that support their own position. Atheists expect continual mutual support between science ...
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The Book of Enoch and the Qumran Scrolls
James C. VanderKam
The work that is today called the Book of Enoch or 1 Enoch is actually a collection of ancient booklets written at different times by several authors, almost all of them composed in the ...
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Buddhist Studies beyond the Nation-State
Richard K. Payne
This essay examines a variety of dysfunctional consequences of employing modern nation-states as the default organizing category for Buddhist studies regardless of the period being studied. ...
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Catholic Laity in the Latin American Church
Robert S. Pelton C.S.C.
Before Vatican II, pastoral theology reflected a clear distinction between the ordained and non-ordained members of the Church, but a gradual nuancing of this issue was taking place in ...
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Central and Eastern Europe
Irena Borowik, Branko Ančić, and Radosław Tyrała
This essay offers a fresh exploration of atheism in post-communist Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), while also providing an overview of existing research into atheism and non-religion in ...
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The Classical Origins of Natural Theology
Stephen R. L. Clark
This chapter reviews classical accounts of natural theology. These include accounts by Hesiod of Boeotia in the late 8th century , Parmenides of Elea (early 5th century ), Empedocles of Acragas ( ...
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1Corinthians
Judith L. Kovacs
One of the earliest surviving Christian writings, Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians provides a fascinating picture of the life of one early Christian community and the challenges its ...
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Desire and the Body in the Patristic Period
Mathew Kuefler
The period between the third and fifth centuries CE was crucial for the development of Christianity not least for ideas about desire and the body. Patristic writers hoped for the ...
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Duns Scotus on the Female Gender
Marilyn McCord Adams
Scotus’ estimate of the female gender is shaped by his view that Mary is pre-eminent among merely human saints. Because Mary must be a real mother, he rejects the Aristotelian view that ...
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The Early Chinese Endeavor to Interpret Early Chinese Religions
K.E. Brashier
Early Chinese writers rose above particular descriptions of spirits and sacrifices to a meta-discourse about the nature of spirits and the meaning of sacrifices. That is, they themselves ...
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Early Modern Natural Theologies
Scott Mandelbrote
This chapter discusses natural theology in the early modern period. It demonstrates that early modern natural theology was a contested arena, in which a number of different standpoints might be ...
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Eastern European Jewry in the Modern Period: 1750–1939
Michael Stanislawski
This article notes that the study of the modern history of East European Jews is not a field driven at present by deep conceptual or ideological divides or abiding scholarly or ...
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Esther and Hitler: A Second Triumphant Purim
Jo Carruthers
The Book of Esther tells the tale of a prime minister, Haman, who, through various political machinations, attempts to annihilate the Jews of the ancient Persian empire. Esther, queen of ...
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Ethical Theories among Medieval Jewish Philosophers
Warren Zev Harvey
This chapter discusses the ethical views of medieval Jewish philosophers, showing that the varieties of Jewish philosophy in the medieval period defy easy categorization, let alone ...
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European Jewry in the Early Modern Period: 1492–1750
Elisheva Carlebach
This article describes conceptions of the early modern period in Jewish historiography, the Italian Renaissance, intellectual history, the Jews of Central Europe in the early modern period, ...
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The First Millennium
Mark Edwards
While Sceptics canvassed arguments against the existence of any gods, and Cynics were abrasive in their strictures on conventional religion, late antiquity offers no indubitable evidence of ...
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From the Pre-Socratics to the Hellenistic Age
David Sedley
‘Atheism’ is a term that has historically carried a wide range of meanings and connotations. Popular speech, in particular, admits of a range of definitions, but the same is true of ...
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