The thought of Paul Ricoeur continues its profound effect on theology, religious studies and biblical interpretation. The 28 papers contained in this volume constitute the most comprehensive overview of Ricoeur's writings in religion since 1970. Ricoeur's hermeneutical orientation and his sensitivity to the mystery of religious language offer fresh insight to the transformative potential of sacred literature, including the Bible.

This eagerly awaited book by David F. Ford makes a unique and important contribution to the debate about the Christian doctrine of salvation. Using the pivotal image of the face, Professor Ford offers a constructive and contemporary account of the self being transformed. He engages with three modern thinkers (Levinas, Jüngel and Ricoeur) in order to rethink and reimagine the meaning of self. Developing the concept of a worshipping self, he explores the dimensions of salvation through the lenses of scripture, worship practices, the life, death and resurrection of Christ, and the lives of contemporary saints. He uses different genres and traditions to show how the self flourishes through engagement with God, other people, and the responsibilities and joys of ordinary living. The result is a habitable theology of salvation immersed in Christian faith, thought and practice while also being deeply involved with modern life in a pluralist world.

Refiguring the Sacred: Conversations with Paul Ricoeur offers perspectives on the twenty-one papers collected by Mark I. Wallace in Paul Ricoeur’s Figuring the Sacred, translated by David Pellauer; this new collection by Joseph A. Edelheit, James Moore, and Mark I. Wallace gives Ricoeur scholars an opportunity to reflect and engage on critical issues of Ricoeur’s religious ideas. Contributions by several significant Ricoeur scholars prompt questions and invite new conversations more than 15 years after Ricoeur’s death. His life-long engagement with texts illuminates his embrace of the Sacred; his significant thinking and writings on Religious imagination, Theology, the Bible, Hope, and Praxis are all ideas that beg more reading, reflection, and refiguring of our understanding of Ricoeur. Wallace brings two additional essays that could not be included in his original collection and reflects on why they are essential to our understanding of Ricoeur and the Sacred. Refiguring the Sacred also provides a model of the interfaith and multidisciplinary dialogue that were foundational to Paul Ricoeur’s scholarship.

While only rarely reflecting explicitly on liturgy, French philosopher Paul Ricoeur (1913-2005) gave sustained attention to several themes pertinent to the interpretation of worship, including metaphor, narrative, subjectivity, and memory. Inspired by his well-known aphorism, “The symbol gives rise to thought,” Liturgical Theology after Schmemann offers an original exploration of the symbolic world of the Byzantine Rite , culminating in a Ricoeurian analysis of its Theophany “Great Blessing of Water.” . The book examines two fundamental questions: 1) what are the implications of the philosopher’s oeuvre for liturgical theology at large? And 2)how does the adoption of a Ricoeurian hermeneutic shape the study of a particular rite? Taking the seminal legacy of Orthodox theologian Alexander Schmemann (1921-1983) as its point of departure, Butcher contributes to the renewal of contemporary Eastern Christian thought and ritual practice by engaging a spectrum of current theological and philosophical conversations.

"In Paul in Israel's Story, John Meech addresses the problem of the self in community in a theological hermeneutics that brings together recent biblical scholarship and constructive theology."--BOOK JACKET.

Since its inception in 1994, scriptural reasoning has been practiced by academics and religious laypeople on an international scale. Scriptural reasoning is an activity or practice where Jews, Christians, and Muslims read and study together short passages from their traditionally sacred texts. In this book, Jacob L. Goodson describes this activity by giving a tour through modern philosophy and showing how certain arguments, ideas, and theories from modern philosophers help make sense of this inter-religious practice. According to Goodson, one of the most interesting aspects of the practice of scriptural reasoning concerns how its driven by a tension between pragmatism and semiotics--what he calls purposefulness (pragmatism) vs. playfulness (semiotics) throughout the book. Can inter-religious practices only be playful, in terms of an academic "leisure activity"? Or do inter-religious practices need to strive toward a greater end or even a higher purpose, such as peace-making among the Abrahamic faiths or inter-religious friendships? In each individual chapter, Goodson explores this tension within the practice of scriptural reasoning. Utilizing Immanuel Kant's deontology, Goodson concludes by demonstrating how the practice of scriptural reasoning might work if only two rules are in place while participating in it.

Food plays a remarkable role in the daily routine of our lives. Whether we make time to eat with our families, or hit the drive-through on the way to doing something else, food and how we approach it has the extraordinary power to unite us with others and nurture our connection to the Divine.