The Spiritual Dimension Religion, Philosophy and Human Value [Paperback]

Philosophy and religion are often seen as opposed, but Cottingham illustrates how they can be reconciled.Philosophy and religion are often seen as opposed, but this book aims to show how they can be reconciled. It argues that religious belief cannot be evaluated as an isolated set of doctrines, but needs to be understood in relation to the spiritual praxis that gives it life. Accessibly written and wide-ranging in scope, it connects the spiritual search for self-awareness and moral growth with the philosophical quest to understand the cosmos and our relationship to it.Philosophy and religion are often seen as opposed, but this book aims to show how they can be reconciled. It argues that religious belief cannot be evaluated as an isolated set of doctrines, but needs to be understood in relation to the spiritual praxis that gives it life. Accessibly written and wide-ranging in scope, it connects the spiritual search for self-awareness and moral growth with the philosophical quest to understand the cosmos and our relationship to it.Offering a new model for the philosophy of religion, John Cottingham combines emotional and intellectual aspects of our human experience, and embraces practical as well as theoretical concerns. Cottingham reveals how a religious worldview is best understood not as an isolated set of doctrines, but as intimately related to spiritual praxis and to the search for self-understanding and moral growth. Touching on many important debates in contemporary philosophy and theology, but accessible to general readers, this book covers a range of central topics in the philosophy of religion.Preface; 1. Religion and spirituality: from praxis to belief; 2. Religion and science: theodicy in an imperfect universe; 3. Religion and value: the problem of heteronomy; 4. Religion and self-discovery: the interior journey; 5. Religion and language: emotion, symbol and fact; 6. Religion and the Enlightenment: modernist and postmodern obstacles; 7. Religion and the golC'