The Influence of the Imagination on the Knowledge of God PDF Download

Author: Robert Colacurcio
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1514433907
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
Most adult believers would acknowledge that the absolute reality of God is unimaginable, and yet the ordinary mind cannot think about divinity without creating images of that reality. This book explores a variety of ways in which our imagination influences what we believe and think we know about God. Even as some theories and the methods behind them yield better results in practice, so certain forms of the imagination yield a truer connection to the divine. Curiously, cutting-edge scienceoften viewed as inimical to engagement with the divineis itself creating new images for a conception of divinity that intimately penetrates all that is. Frontier cutting-edge science will thus become one of three interpenetrating streams that impact the influence of the imagination on the knowledge of God. The other two are the conceptual dimension of mind and what I distinguish as the awareness dimension of mind. The application of my theory about the influence of the imagination on the knowledge of God is whether the reader can make practical connections to their experience of suffering in the world and find some diminishment of that suffering. If that does not happen, I apologize to my readers for wasting their time.

Author: Paul Avis
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134609388
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 197

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'A mere metaphor', 'only symbolic', 'just a myth' - these tell tale phrases reveal how figurative language has been cheapened and devalued in our modern and postmodern culture. In God and the Creative Imagination, Paul Avis argues the contrary: we see that actually, metaphor, symbol and myth, are the key to a real knowledge of God and the sacred. Avis examines what he calls an alternative tradition, stemming from the Romantic poets Blake, Wordsworth and Keats and drawing on the thought of Cleridge and Newman, and experience in both modern philosophy and science. God and the Creative Imagination intriguingly draws on a number of non-theological disciplines, from literature to philosophy of science, to show us that God is appropriately likened to an artist or poet and that the greatest truths are expressed in an imaginative form. Anyone wishing to further their understanding of God, belief and the imagination will find this an inspiring work.

Author: Ray L. Hart
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Imagination
Languages : en
Pages : 1204

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Author: Robert Colacurcio
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 191

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In Teilhard’s view, however, evolution is necessarily benign because of the elemental influence that the Christic Incarnation has upon all matter. Cosmologically, in his view, the map allows for only one destination. The development of my book will examine whether and to what extent the essential philosophical elements assumed by Teilhard’s science permit, foster, favor or inhibit the realization of the utopian vision. Therefore, we will examine the thought of Teilhard de Chardin as exhibited principally in The Human Phenomenon as to its usefulness as a Big Map leading from the paramesium to paradise. The reader might find it helpful, in this extended examination, to keep Samuel Huntington’s five criteria in mind when examining a map, a model or a paradigm. Is it able to do the following: 1. order and generalize about reality; 2. understand causal relationships among phenomena; 3. anticipate and even predict future developments; 4. distinguish what is important from the unimportant; 5. show us what paths we should take to achieve our goal. (Huntington, p.30)

Author: Charles Mosley
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1543462014
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 45

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Book Description
Christians are called to love God with all their hearts. In Is It Just My Imagination? Charles Mosley explores the significance of imagination for the Christian. What is the relationship between our imagination and reality? Why should what God wants affect our imagination? How is our heart tied to our imagination? Reflection about the impact of world we paint through our imagination is worthy of every Christians consideration.

Author: Gary Lachman
Publisher: Floris Books
ISBN: 1782504575
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
The ability to imagine is at the heart of what makes us human. Through our imagination we experience more fully the world both around us and within us. Imagination plays a key role in creativity and innovation. Until the seventeenth century, the human imagination was celebrated. Since then, with the emergence of science as the dominant worldview, imagination has been marginalised -- depicted as a way of escaping reality, rather than knowing it more profoundly -- and its significance to our humanity has been downplayed. Yet as we move further into the strange new dimensions of the twenty-first century, the need to regain this lost knowledge seems more necessary than ever before. This insightful and inspiring book argues that, for the sake of our future in the world, we must reclaim the ability to imagine and redress the balance of influence between imagination and science. Through the work of Owen Barfield, Goethe, Henry Corbin, Kathleen Raine, and others, and ranging from the teachings of ancient mystics to the latest developments in neuroscience, The Lost Knowledge of the Imagination draws us back to a philosophy and tradition that restores imagination to its rightful place, essential to our knowing reality to the full, and to our very humanity itself.

Author: John Piper
Publisher: Inter-Varsity Press
ISBN: 1844749622
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
This is a book to help Christians to think about thinking. Focusing on the life of the mind helps us to know God better, love him more, and care for the world. Along with an emphasis on emotions and the experience of God, we also need to practise careful thinking about God. Piper contends that 'thinking is indispensable on the path to passion for God'. So how are we to maintain a healthy balance of mind and heart, thinking and feeling? Piper urges us to think for the glory of God. He demonstrates from Scripture that glorifying God with our minds and hearts is not either-or, but both-and. Thinking carefully about God fuels passion and affections for God. Likewise, Christ-exalting emotion leads to disciplined thinking. Readers will be reminded that 'the mind serves to know the truth that fuels the fires of the heart'.

Author: Jonathan Brink
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780615513959
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
Deep inside you always knew it was there, that image of God drawing you in to healing, restoration, hope and even love. You wanted it to be true. You couldn't ignore it, even though you weren't sure it was true. Yet finding that image in Scripture is often hard. It's easy to see God as angry and bent on catching us when we fail. What if the story the Bible could actually reinforce what your heart longed to be true? What if the story was actually about God's relentless pursuit of the restoration of all creation, of you? You just needed help seeing it. In this re-examination of the story of Christianity, author Jonathan Brink offers a compelling look into the remarkable dissonance between our historical understanding of Gospel, and what the story in Scripture actually reveals. It offers a compelling possibility for those looking to reconstruct their faith in a whole new way. Discovering The God Imagination examines the details of the story that shapes our understanding of the Gospel, in light of our emerging understanding of cognitive development. It suggests a profoundly simple but provocative assessment of why we misunderstand God, ourselves and each other. Listening to the story once again allows us to unravel the mystery of suffering, justice, and reconciliation, and actually participate with God in our own restoration. It suggests that at the deepest levels, life is really about wrestling with and answering a single root question, symbolized in the Tree of Knowledge? How can God love me when I'm broken? Finally, it offers new insights that suggest the cross is God saying, "This is how far I will go to show you that you that I love you." It suggests the Way of love espoused by Jesus is actually a return to reality, to God's original, objective structure for what it means to be human.

Author: Thomas Merton
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 1429966769
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 1085

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Book Description
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) is the most admired of all American Catholic writers. His journals have recently been published to wide acclaim. The collection of Merton's letters in The Hidden Ground of Love were selected and edited by William H. Shannon.

Author: Jonathan King
Publisher: Lexham Press
ISBN: 1683590597
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 452

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Book Description
Why is God's beauty often absent from our theology? Rarely do theologians take up the theme of God's beauty—even more rarely do they consider how God's beauty should shape the task of theology itself. But the psalmist says that the heart of the believer's desire is to behold the beauty of the Lord. In The Beauty of the Lord, Jonathan King restores aesthetics as not merely a valid lens for theological reflection, but an essential one. Jesus, our incarnate Redeemer, displays the Triune God's beauty in his actions and person, from creation to final consummation. How can and should theology better reflect this unveiled beauty? The Beauty of the Lord is a renewal of a truly aesthetic theology and a properly theological aesthetics.