With a good job in sales and marketing and a nice house in Manchester that he shared with his wife and kids, John Bishop began to take stock of his life as he faced up to the big '4-0'. But instead of spanking a load of cash on a car that would have made him look like a senior stylist at Vidal Sassoon, he stumbled onto a pathway that ultimately lead him to become one of the nation's best loved comedians. This book explains how John went from dreaming of ousting Kenny Dalglish from the number seven Liverpool shirt, and instead became one of Britain's top TV funnymen.

How Did All This Happen?

Biographies & Memoirs

Bishop, John

Arts & Literature

Harper

What must reality be like if the God of Abrahamic theism exists? How could the worldview of Abrahamic theism be understood if not in terms of the existence of a supremely powerful, knowledgeable, and good personal being? John Bishop and Ken Perszyk argue that it is reasonable to reject whatmany analytic philosophers take to be the standard conception of God as the 'personal omniGod'. They argue that a version of a 'logical' Argument from Evil is still very much in play, contrary to the widely held view that this line of argument is bankrupt.This book provides a new presentation and defence of the alternative that Bishop and Perszyk have called euteleology. Its core claims are that reality is inherently purposive, and that the Universe exists ultimately because its overall end (telos), which is the supreme good, is made concretely realwithin it. There is no supreme agent ('standing by' while horrors take place); God is 'no-thing' in euteleology's basic ontology. Rather, talk of God-as-a-personal-being is a cognitive construction, treating ultimate reality by analogy with our ordinary ways of experiencing and talking about theworld.But euteleological theism is also emphatically realist. Analogizing God-talk enables humans to align themselves with reality and is aptly deployed in prayer and worship-practices whose broad function is a human contribution to, and enjoyment of, the fulfilment of reality's inherent ultimatepurpose.

God, Purpose, and Reality: A Euteleological Understanding of Theism

Politics & Social Sciences

Perszyk, Ken

Philosophy

Oxford University Press

Can it be justifiable to commit oneself 'by faith' to a religious claim when its truth lacks adequate support from one's total available evidence? In Believing by Faith, John Bishop defends a version of fideism inspired by William James's 1896 lecture 'The Will to Believe'. By critiquing both 'isolationist' (Wittgensteinian) and Reformed epistemologies of religious belief, Bishop argues that anyone who accepts that our publicly available evidence is equally open to theistic and naturalist/atheistic interpretations will need to defend a modest fideist position. This modest fideism understands theistic commitment as involving 'doxastic venture' - practical commitment to propositions held to be true through 'passional' causes (causes other than the recognition of evidence of or for their truth). While Bishop argues that concern about the justifiability of religious doxastic venture is ultimately moral concern, he accepts that faith-ventures can be morally justifiable only if they are in accord with the proper exercise of our rational epistemic capacities. Legitimate faith-ventures may thus never be counter-evidential, and, furthermore, may be made supra-evidentially only when the truth of the faith-proposition concerned necessarily cannot be settled on the basis of evidence. Bishop extends this Jamesian account by requiring that justifiable faith-ventures should also be morally acceptable both in motivation and content. Hard-line evidentialists, however, insist that all religious faith-ventures are morally wrong. Bishop thus conducts an extended debate between fideists and hard-line evidentialists, arguing that neither side can succeed in establishing the irrationality of its opposition. He concludes by suggesting that fideism may nevertheless be morally preferable, as a less dogmatic, more self-accepting, even a more loving, position than its evidentialist rival.

Believing by Faith: An Essay in the Epistemology and Ethics of Religious Belief

Clarendon Press

"Finnegan's Wake" is perhaps the most difficult and willfully obscure piece in all of modern literature, a book written in polyglottal puns that continues to baffle not only lay readers but, in large part, Joyceans as well. Here in twelve chapters, John Bishop aims to unravel Joyce's obscurities and aims to reveal the "Wake" more clearly than anyone has done before. The greatest obstacle to the comprehension of "Finnegan's Wake", says Bishop, is the failure to believe that Joyce really meant what he said when he spoke of the book as being a reconstruction of the nocturnal life. As a consequence, readers have scrutinized the text with an unyielding literalism bent on finding a kind of meaning in every way antithetical to the kind of meaning embodied in dreams. Had Joyce made the "Wake" less obscure, says Bishop, he would have annihilated everything about the book that is most essential, most engaging, funny, and most profound. In taking seriously Joyce's stated intention of writing a book about the night, Bishop shows how the determination to represent nocturnal experience accounts for the form, shape, direction, and language of "Finnegan's Wake". Although Bishop is not the first to appreciate the problems Joyce faced in his reconstruction of the night, no one has demonstrated more clearly and persuasively how Joyce's creative imagination solved those problems, nor made a more convincing case for the profound significance of Joyce's effort. Bishop relates the "Wake" to Freud, to Vico, and to the Egyptian Book of the Dead, shedding light throughout on such fundamental and complex subjects as dream theory and interpretation; thanatology; optics and phonetics; infancy, embryology, and gender; and sexuality and power.

Joyce's Book of the Dark: Finnegans Wake

Literature & Fiction

British & Irish

Univ of Wisconsin Pr

“Joyce’s Book of the Dark gives us such a blend of exciting intelligence and impressive erudition that it will surely become established as one of the most fascinating and readable Finnegans Wake studies now available.”—Margot Norris, James Joyce Literary Supplement

Joyce's Book of the Dark: Finnegans Wake (Volume 1) (Mark H Ingraham Prize)

History & Criticism

University of Wisconsin Press

Dangerous churches are willing to put everything on the line for the one thing that matters most; reaching lost people. Through probing questions and amazing stories of God’s grace, John Bishop confronts church leaders to embrace what matters most to the heart of God, whatever the cost. Most churches naturally gravitate to what is safe and familiar. Church leaders who take risks are bound to fail, and fear drives us to continue in our comfortable, but ineffective patterns. But reaching out to a lost world was never meant to be easy. Jesus promised his followers that they would have trouble in this world. Dangerous churches are churches that are willing to risk everything―comfort, safety, and the security of the familiar―for the sake of the one thing that matters most: reaching out to people who may spend eternity separated from the God who created them. God wants us to live on the edge of our margins, walking by faith and not simply following scripted methods or programmed patterns. Dangerous Church takes you back to the Book of Acts and reminds church leaders that the heartbeat of the church is not found in agendas or human plans, but in pursuing the mission of God and reaching out to a lost world. Learn what can happen when church leaders abandon their fears and begin to live a dangerous faith. Dangerous Church is part of the Leadership Network Innovation Series.

Dangerous Church: Risking Everything to Reach Everyone (Leadership Network Innovation Series)

Religion & Spirituality

Christian Books & Bibles

Zondervan

How can you fulfill your calling as a ministry leader and help your church experience vitality? Learn from those who have gone before you.The Leadership Network Innovation Series Pack presents case studies and insights from leading practitioners and pioneering churches that are successfully navigating the ever-changing streams of spiritual renewal in modern society. Each book offers real stories about real leaders in real churches doing real ministry. Readers gain honest and thorough analyses, transferable principles, and clear guidance on how to put proven ideas to work in their individual setting. This value pack includes all 16 volumes in the Leadership Network Innovation Series.

Leadership Network Innovation Series Pack: Complete 16-Volume Set

Driscoll, Mark

Bird, Warren

Browning, Dave

Ferguson, Dave

Ferguson, Jon

Osborne, Larry

Harney, Kevin G.

Pope, Randy

Rizzo, Dino

Beshore, Laurie

McBean, Teresa J.

Surratt, Geoff

Ligon, Greg

DeYmaz, Mark

Swanson, Elizabeth A.

Li, Harry

Gibbons,Dave

Sheppard, Jim

Willard, Chris

Bramlett, Eric

From a moral point of view we think of ourselves as capable of responsible actions. From a scientific point of view we think of ourselves as animals whose behavior, however highly evolved, conforms to natural scientific laws. Natural Agency argues that these different perspectives can be reconciled, despite the skepticism of many philosophers who have argued that "free will" is impossible under "scientific determinism." This skepticism is best overcome according to the author, by defending a causal theory of action, that is by establishing that actions are constituted by behavioral events with the appropriate kind of mental causal history. He sets out a rich and subtle argument for such a theory and defends it against its critics. Thus the book demonstrates the importance of philosophical work in action theory for the central metaphysical task of understanding our place in nature.

Natural Agency: An Essay on the Causal Theory of Action (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy)

Cambridge University Press

From a moral point of view we think of ourselves as capable of responsible actions. From a scientific point of view we think of ourselves as animals whose behavior, however highly evolved, conforms to natural scientific laws. Natural Agency argues that these different perspectives can be reconciled, despite the skepticism of many philosophers who have argued that "free will" is impossible under "scientific determinism." This skepticism is best overcome according to the author, by defending a causal theory of action, that is by establishing that actions are constituted by behavioral events with the appropriate kind of mental causal history. He sets out a rich and subtle argument for such a theory and defends it against its critics. Thus the book demonstrates the importance of philosophical work in action theory for the central metaphysical task of understanding our place in nature.

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The Trip Back Down: A Drama in Two Acts

Samuel. French

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