Fundamentally an inquiry into the non-rational factor in the idea of the divine and its relation to the rational.

Central to God’s character is the quality of holiness. Yet, even so, most people are hard-pressed to define what God’s holiness precisely is. Many preachers today avoid the topic altogether because people today don’t quite know what to do with words like “awe” or “fear.” R. C. Sproul, in this classic work, puts the holiness of God in its proper and central place in the Christian life. He paints an awe-inspiring vision of God that encourages Christian to become holy just as God is holy. Once you encounter the holiness of God, your life will never be the same.

Holiness is the attribute most emphatically ascribed to God in Scripture, but there has been little attention devoted to characterizing and considering the entailments of divine holiness. In Divine Holiness and Divine Action, Mark C. Murphy defends an account of holiness indebted to Rudolf Otto's description of the experience of the holy as that of a mysterium tremendum et fascinans. God's being holy consists in God's being someone with whom intimate union is both extremely desirable for us and yet something for which we—and indeed any limited beings—are unfit. This notion of divine holiness is useful for addressing disputed theological questions regarding divine action. In contrast to standard accounts of divine action that begin with assumptions regarding God's moral perfection or God's maximal love, the appeal to divine holiness supports a rival framework for explaining and predicting divine action—the holiness framework—according to which God is motivated to act in ways that are a response to God's own value by keeping distance from that which is deficient, defective, or in any way limited in goodness. This study exhibits the fruitfulness of a reorientation from the morality and love frameworks to the holiness framework by showing how such a reorientation suggests distinct approaches to perennial problems of divine action regarding creation, incarnation, atonement, and salvation. From the treatment of these perennial problems, a general theme regarding divine action emerges: that God's interaction with the world exhibits a radical sort of humility.

An unprecedented multi-volume reference work on philosophy of religion, providing authoritative coverage of all significant concepts, figures, and movements Unmatched in scope and depth, The Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Religion provides readers with a well-balanced understanding of philosophical thought about the nature of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and other religious traditions around the globe. Spanning across four comprehensive volumes, this groundbreaking resource contains hundreds of specially commissioned entries covering the key themes, thinkers, works, and ideas in the field. Organized alphabetically, the Encyclopedia addresses an unmatched range of both historical and contemporary topics which reflect a diversity of theoretical and cultural perspectives. The entries encompass an extraordinary range of topics, from Aquinas and Kierkegaard, to teleological and ontological arguments, to cognitive science and psychology of religion, and many more. Each peer-reviewed entry is written by an acknowledged expert on the topic and includes short bibliographies, suggestions for further reading, and extensive cross-references. Accessible to scholars and non-specialist readers alike, this invaluable reference work: Provides balanced coverage of Abrahamic religions as well as different traditions from Asia, Africa, and other geographic regions Presents more than 450 entries which have been carefully reviewed by an editorial advisory board of world-renowned scholars Explores topics in various historical contexts, such as Jewish and Islamic contributions to medieval philosophy Discusses recent developments and new approaches to the study of philosophy of religion Examines significant theories and concepts including free will, atonement, moral argument, natural law, process theology, evolutionary theory, and theism Offers a fully cross-referenced and searchable online edition; The first work of its kind, The Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Religion is an indispensable resource for scholars and advanced students in philosophy, theology, religious studies, and relevant areas of humanities and sciences at both secular universities and theological colleges and seminaries.

Melissa Raphael presents a critical examination of the contribution made to the twentieth-century concept of holiness by the German Protestant Rudolf Otto (1869-1937). Contrary to the received view that Otto's work is primarily significant to the history and practice of the phenomenology of religion, this book argues that Otto's idea of the holy should be an anchor concept of theological discourse.

Religion, Theory, Critique is an essential tool for learning about theory and method in the study of religion. Leading experts engage with contemporary and classical theories as well as non-Western cultural contexts. Unlike other collections, this anthology emphasizes the dynamic relationship between "religion" as an object of study and different methodological approaches and openly addresses the question of the manifold ways in which "religion," "secular," and "culture" are imagined within different disciplinary horizons. This volume is the first textbook which seeks to engage discussion of classical approaches with contemporary cultural and critical theories. Contributors write on the influence of the natural sciences in the study of religion; the role of European Christianity in modeling theories of religion; religious experience and the interface with cognitive science; the structure and function of religious language; the social-scientific study of religion; ritual in religion; the phenomenology of religion; critical theory and religion; embodiment and religion; the impact of colonialism and modernity; theorizing religion in terms of race and ethnicity; links among religion, nationalism, and globalization; the interplay of gender, sex, and religion; and religion and the environment. Each chapter introduces the topic, identifies key theorists and issues, and respects the pluralistic nature of the scholarship in the field. Altogether, this collection scrutinizes the explicit and implicit assumptions theorists make about religion as an object of analysis.

The World Council of Churches has called for renewed theological reflection on the biblical roots of ordination to strengthen the vocational identity of the ordained and to provide a framework for ecumenical dialogue. This book is a response to that call. It is grounded in the assumption that the vocation of ordination requires an understanding of holiness and how it functions in human religious experience. The goal is to construct a biblical theology of ordination that is embedded in broad reflection on the nature of holiness. Dozeman's study of holiness and ministry interweaves three methodologies. The first, from the History of Religions, describes two theories of holiness in the study of religion, as a dynamic force and as a ritual resource. Both play a central role in biblical literature and establish the paradigm of ordination to Word and Sacrament in Christian tradition. Second, the study of the formation of the Mosaic Office illustrates how the two views of holiness model ordination to the prophetic word and to the priestly ritual. Third, Canonical Criticism provides the lens to explore the ongoing influence of the Mosaic Office in the New Testament literature. Holiness and Ministry will assist candidates for ordination to discern their call experience and establish professional identity within individual traditions of Christianity, while also providing a resource for ecumenical dialogue on the nature and purpose of Christian ordination.