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John Bowker demonstrates why we need to examine both negative and positive aspects of religion to understand religion in the modern world.
List of contents
1. Introduction; 2. The paradox of religions; 3. Religions and sciences I: 'the warfare between science and religion'; 4. Religions and sciences II: dogmatism and doubt; 5. Religions and sciences III: the selfless gene: genetic determinism and human freedom; 6. Religions and sciences IV: causes and constraints; 7. Understanding religions I: issues of translation and interpretation; 8. Understanding religions II: being religiously human; the internalisation of constraint in ethics and art; 9. Understanding religions III: ritual and the human imagination of death; 10. Understanding religions IV: communities of shared exploration and discovery.
About the author
John Bowker is an Emeritus Professor at Gresham College, London. He has also been a Fellow and Dean of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Professor of Religious Studies at the universities of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina State. He is the author or editor of more than forty books, including Problems of Suffering in Religions of the World; The Meanings of Death (winner of the HarperCollins Book Prize, 1993); Is God a Virus? Genes, Culture and Religion; The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions; God: A Brief History; Beliefs that Changed the World and Knowing the Unknowable: Science and Religions on God and the Universe.
Summary
Religions divide opinions. Some say religions are obsolete, irrational and dangerous. Others point to the great achievements of religions in advancing our exploration of the cosmos and of human nature. There is truth in both perspectives, and John Bowker draws on many disciplines in the sciences and humanities to show what religions are and why they matter.
