Bücher der Reihe Veritas

The Veritas Series brings to market original volumes all engaging in critical questions of pressing concern to both philosophers, theologians, biologists, economists and more.

In The Truth Is the Way, Christopher Ben Simpson presents Kierkegaard''s work as a theologia viatorum, a theology to guide one on life''s way. Thistruth that is the way is at once existential, metaphysical, and theological - the highest truth is a living in accord with reality that is revealed to us and enabled in us by Jesus Christ. This picture ofKierkegaard''s thought, drawing on the whole of his published corpus, presents his perspectives (by way of prolegomena) on the nature oftruth, of communication and of faith and (more substantially) his guiding vision of the world, God, humanity, and Christ, culminating in Kierkegaard''s understanding of the manner of life lived in light of this vision - of a journey walked in the virtues of patience, faith, hope, and love toward a life of joy in the midst of suffering, of communion withoneself, with God, with others.

The study of Maximus the Confessor''s thought has flourished in recent years: international conferences, publications and articles, new critical editions and translations mark a torrent of interest in the work and influence of perhaps the most sublime of the Byzantine Church Fathers. It has been repeatedly stated that the Confessor''s thought is of eminently philosophical interest. However, no dedicated collective scholarly engagement with Maximus the Confessor as a philosopher has taken place--and this volume attempts to start such a discussion. Apart from Maximus'' relevance and importance for philosophy in general, a second question arises: should towering figures of Byzantine philosophy like Maximus the Confessor be included in an overview of the European history of philosophy, or rather excluded from it--as is the case today with most histories of European philosophy? Maximus'' philosophy challenges our understanding of what European philosophy is. In this volume, we begin to address these issues and examine numerous aspects of Maximus'' philosophy--thereby also stressing the interdisciplinary character of Maximian studies.""This groundbreaking volume correctly identifies an odious convention in the division of disciplines: while major thinkers such as Augustine or Aquinas self-evidently make their way into being part of philosophy''s legacy, equally major thinkers that are categorized as ''religious'' are exiled to the hermetically sealed domain of theology, even if their contribution to classical philosophical problems is unique, pertinent, and most fecund. The book at hand delivers on its promise of reclaiming Maximus the Confessor for philosophy and of recognizing his oeuvre as a critical contribution to its history; as such, it is one of those endeavors that contribute to nothing less than a paradigm change.""--Grigory Benevich, The Russian Christian Academy for the Humanities""This rich and diverse set of essays goes far in demonstrating not only the depth and nuance of Maximus the Confessor''s philosophical theology in its own context but its relevance to a wide array of contemporary theological concerns. They indicate very well why the study of Maximus has experienced a profound renaissance in the past several years, as this is a thinker whose stature matches the far more studied figures of Augustine and Aquinas. From metaphysics to theological anthropology, from apophaticism to ethics, this collection is a fine contribution to the expanding research on Maximus and will further generate interest in the Confessor among historical theologians, philosophers, and scholars from a wide variety of disciplines.""--Paul M. Blowers, Emmanuel Christian Seminary at Milligan CollegeSotiris Mitralexis is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the City University of Istanbul and Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Winchester. Georgios Steiris is Assistant Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Marcin Podbielski is Editor-in-Chief of Forum Philosophicum, an international journal for philosophy, and teaches philosophy at the Jesuit University Ignatianum in Cracow, Poland. Sebastian Lalla is Assistant Professor (Privatdozent) at the Freie Universitat Berlin''s Institute of Philosophy and Guest Professor of Philosophy at the National University of Mongolia.

Karl Barth''s Christology provides a key to out-narrating the Deus absconditus, which, as Rustin Brian contends, is in fact the god of modernity. Included in this is the rejection of the logical and philosophical systems that allow for the modern understanding of God as the Deus absconditus, namely, dialectics and nominalism. This rejection is illustrated, interestingly enough, in Barth''s decision to literally cover up, with a rug, Martin Luther''s works in his personal library. Surely this was more than a decorative touch.The reading of Barth''s works that results from this starting point challenges much of contemporary Barth scholarship and urges readers to reconsider Barth. Through careful examination of a large body of Barth''s writings, particularly in regard to the issues of the knowledge or knowability of God, as well as Christology, Brian argues that contemporary Barth scholarship should be done in careful conversation with the finest examples of both Protestant and, especially, Roman Catholic theology. Barth''s paradoxical Christology thus becomes the foundation for a dogmatic ecumenicism. Barth''s Christology, then, just might be able to open up possibilities for discussion and even convergence, within a church that is anything but one.""This book is a significant contribution to the lively conversation between Christian theology and postmodernity. Perhaps Brian''s most trenchant insight is that Karl Barth''s quarrel with Martin Luther in regards to the Deus absconditus parallels postmodernity''s critique of typically modern conceptions of God, entertained by believers and non-believers alike. Thus, the greatest Protestant theologian of the twentieth century shows the path toward dialogue with the dominant cultural form of the twenty-first century. Brian''s text is lively, provocative, well-written, and compellingly argued.""--Robert Barron, author of The Priority of Christ""Rather than accepting well-worn interpretations of Barth (and Luther), Brian breaks fresh ground with a provocative--and for that reason all the more interesting--interpretation. Barth was not a dialectical theologian indebted to a Lutheran Deus absconditus. Instead, he was a theologian of the glorious paradox of the fullness of God present in Christ. . . . Brian''s book marks an important contribution for a new direction in Barth studies.""--D. Stephen Long, author of Keeping Faith""In this ecumenically important book, Brian argues that Karl Barth is best regarded as a transitional figure who crucially helped open up the current, post-Protestant era in theology by breaking with the tropes of nominalism and voluntarism, which had imprisoned the mainline Reformation and distorted their grasp of orthodox Christology. He makes a convincing case that requires to be taken seriously.""--John Milbank, author of Being ReconciledRustin E. Brian is an ordained Pastor in the Church of the Nazarene, currently pastoring Renton Church of the Nazarene in Renton, WA, and Adjunct Professor of Theology at Northwest Nazarene University and Seattle Pacific University. He is the author of Covering Up Luther: How Barth''s Christology Challenged the Deus Absconditus that Haunts Modernity (2013).

Thomas Piketty''s Capital in the Twenty-First Century initiated a great debate not just about inequality but also regarding the failures found in the economic models used by theoreticians and practitioners alike. Wealth of Persons offers a totally different perspective that challenges the very terms of the debate. The Great Recession reveals a great existential rift at the core of certain economic reflections, thereby showing the real crisis of the crisis of economics. In the human sciences we have created a kind of ""Tower of Babel"" where we cannot understand each other any longer. The ""breakdowns"" occur equally on the personal, social, political, and economic levels. There is a need for an ""about-face"" in method to restore harmony among dissociated disciplines.Wealth of Persons offers a key to such a restoration, applying insights and analysis taken from different economic scholars, schools of thought, philosophical traditions, various disciplines, and charismatic entrepreneurs. Wealth of Persons aims at recapturing an adequate understanding of the acting human person in the economic drama, one that measures up to the reality. The investigation is a passport allowing entry into the land of economic knowledge, properly unfolding the anthropological meaning of the free economy.""John McNerney''s Wealth of Persons is an amazing tour de force--his focus on the human person in economics not only opens up economics for the nonprofessional economist, it''s a bracing exposition of the philosophy of the human person, all the more impressive when seen immersed in economic action. By focusing on the Austrian and the later Bologna schools'' insistence on the role of the entrepreneur he critiques, on the one hand, an economy overfocused on profit and, on the other, Marx''s (and later Piketty''s) misreading of economics as a struggle between capital and labor. It should be required reading for all students (and teachers) of economics as well as of applied philosophical anthropology.""--Brendan Purcell, Adjunct Professor at the School of Philosophy and Theology, University of Notre Dame Australia, Sydney""This book is a welcome addition to the field of Catholic social teachings and more generally to the debate over the use of economics and its limits . . . The author aims to explain the ''crisis'' in economics and in the economy without blaming the usual suspects, especially human greed. This research program is sorely needed, especially coming from someone outside of the field of economics.""--Frederic Sautet, Associate Professor of Economics at the Catholic University of America""McNerney . . . is not afraid to suggest that theological and metaphysical issues are needed to put the right limits on economics. And he shows how this might be done without undermining the integrity of the discipline itself--indeed, how such issues flow out of the discipline and its activities among real [persons] acting together . . . What McNerney is really getting at is a placing of economics in its true place, with the realization that the acting person also has a transcendent destiny that is really why he is doing anything at all in the first place, as Augustine said.""--Professor James V. Schall, Retired Professor of Political Philosophy in the Department of Government at Georgetown UniversityJohn McNerney is head chaplain at University College Dublin. Author of John Paul II: Poet and Philosopher (2004), he is also an occasional lecturer to undergraduate and graduate students in the fields of business ethics and philosophy. He has given talks at various international conferences in North America, Europe, and Asia, and is a member of the national Economy of Communion commission in Ireland.

It is surely not coincidental that the term ""soul"" should mean not only the center of a creature''s life and consciousness, but also a thing or action characterized by intense vivacity (""that bike''s got soul!""). It also seems far from coincidental that the same contemporary academic discussions that have largely cast aside the language of ""soul"" in their quest to define the character of human mental life should themselves be so--how to say it?--bloodless, so lacking in soul. This volume arises from the opposite premise, namely that the task of understanding human nature is bound up with and in important respects dependent upon the more critical task of learning to be fully human, of learning to have soul. The papers collected here are derived from a conference in Oxford sponsored by the Centre of Theology and Philosophy and together explore the often surprising landscape that emerges when human consciousness is approached from this angle. Drawing upon literary, philosophical, theological, historical, and musical modes of analysis, the essays of this volume vividly remind the reader of the power of the ancient language of soul over against contemporary impulses to reduce, fragment, and overly determine human selfhood.""According to Aristotle, inquiry into the soul is one of the noblest human tasks. Such an inquiry, however, has all but disappeared: if the soul is not denied altogether, it is rarely thought about. The Resounding Soul helps us recollect this ancient knowledge, and at the same time opens up new avenues of reflection. By inviting us to lift our gaze in this bourgeois and pragmatic age, the editors have rendered a great service.""--D. C. Schindler, author, Associate Professor of Metaphysics and Anthropology, The John Paul II Institute""These exacting essays variously suggest that the apparently problematic category of the soul nonetheless secures the reality of mind without reduction, and without a dualistic contrast to body and matter. Both body and mind live, and it is the living force of the soul which combines them in growth, motion and reflection.""--Catherine Pickstock Professor of Metaphysics and Poetics, Emmanuel College, University of CambridgeEric Austin Lee (PhD) is Research Fellow/Deputy Director, North America at the Centre of Theology and Philosophy, University of Nottingham, where he also received his PhD. He is coeditor of the Veritas and KALOS book series.Samuel Kimbriel (MPhil; PhD) is a Teaching Fellow in philosophical theology at the University of Nottingham. He is the author of Friendship as Sacred Knowing: Overcoming Isolation (2014).

The Radical Orthodoxy movement has made major contributions to the debate about the return to metaphysics in Christian theology and philosophy. This book challenges much of what is regarded as 'orthodoxy' in Barthian circles.

The relation between life and death is a subject of perennial relevance for all human beings--and indeed, the whole world and the entire universe, in as much as, according to the saying of ancient Greek philosophy, all things that come into being pass away. Yet it is also a topic of increasing complexity, for life and death now appear to be more intertwined than previously or commonly thought. Moreover, the relation between life and death is also one of increasing urgency, as through the twin phenomena of an increase in longevity unprecedented in human history and the rendering of death, dying, and the dead person all but invisible, people living in the industrialized and post-industrialized Western world of today have lost touch with the reality of death. This radically new situation, and predicament, has implications--medical, ethical, economic, philosophical, and, not least, theological--that have barely begun to be addressed. This volume gathers together essays by a distinguished and diverse group of scientists, theologians, philosophers, and health practitioners, originally presented in a symposium sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation.""In this book, the mutual implication of death and life is demonstrated from an astronomical level, in the emergence of human life from the death of stars, to the molecular level where death enables the emergence of cellular life, through anthropological, philosophical, and theological insights, to the realm of medical care for the dying, where it is claimed that ''only theology can save medicine.'' A profound and challenging book.""--Andrew Louth, Professor Emeritus of Patristic and Byzantine Studies, Durham University, United Kingdom""How can Christians defend the place of natural death and the death consequent upon sin, while continuing to insist upon the undying character of true life as such and so the reality of resurrection? These penetrating essays by several of the leading theological thinkers of our times will powerfully help the reader to ponder these crucial matters of our contemporary mortality.""--John Milbank, Research Professor and Director of the Centre of Theology and Philosophy, University of Nottingham""For once, it is not a polite exaggeration to say this is a ''unique'' book. The breadth of disciplines represented and the originality of the analysis offered make it an exceptional contribution to current debates. Anyone who thinks the dialogue between theology and the natural sciences is, at best, an exchange of uncomprehending platitudes, will have to think again in the face of these expert, challenging essays, which show that an orthodox theology of our embodied condition can be culturally transformative.""--Rowan Williams, Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge""A substantive, important, and provocative volume. The insights of the essays it encompasses will richly reward the reader."" --H. Tristram Engelhardt Jr., Professor of Philosophy, Rice University, Professor Emeritus, Baylor College of MedicineJohn Behr is the Dean of St. Vladimir''s Orthodox Theological Seminary in New York. He has published numerous monographs with SVS Press and OUP, most recently an edition and translation of the fragments of Diodore of Tarsus and Theodore of Mopsuestia and a monograph on Irenaeus.Conor Cunningham, Associate Professor of Theology and Philosophy at the University of Nottingham, serves as codirector of the Centre of Theology and Philosophy. He is the author of the Genealogy of Nihilism (2002) and the award-winning Darwin''s Pious Idea: Why the Ultra-Darwinists and Creationists Both Get It Wrong (2010). Cunningham was also the writer and presenter of the multi award-winning BBC documentary Did Darwin Kill God?

Reveals how the divorce of divine perfection from human perfection undergirds the divorce of theology and philosophy. This work shows how these discourses were originally joined by the Church Fathers, to how they were separated in the Middle Ages and modern Anglicanism, to how they can be rejoined.

The publication of the book "Jesus of Nazareth" on 16 April, 2007 was an unprecedented event: never before had a reigning Pope published personal reflections on Jesus. This book provides essays by some of the leading scholars in Britain, continental Europe and the USA to highlight the insights and limits of the Pope's reflection on Jesus.

Presents a cast of contributors debating the question of universalism. This book attempts to think through the re-hellenization of Christian faith. It focuses on the importance of Christian 'truth' and the tradition of how faith and reason are bound together in the universal claim of the Gospel.

Phenomenology is a key area of twentieth-century philosophy in which there is a wide interest, not only among philosophers but also among theologians and religious studies scholars. This title presents a study of phenomenology and the 'return of God'.