A vigorous defence of a radical ontological pluralism that requires theism and is consistent with traditional Christianity.

Make/Believing the World(s): Toward a Christian Ontological Pluralism

McLeod-Harrison, Mark S.

Religion & Spirituality

McGill-Queen's University Press

If radical postmodernism offers nothing more than arbitrary fictions and modernism is coldly but meaninglessly objective, where is reality? Apologizing for God argues that reality rests in the lives we live in history. In other words, it argues that living as understood on the basis of the incarnational nature of Christianity is an appropriate response to our current cultural situation. Partly philosophical, partly theological, and deeply Christian, Apologizing for God explores the importance of living in the presence of God as revealed in the autobiographies of our lives. Although not autobiographical in the strict sense, this book is an apologetic for the truth of Christianity explained through one Christian philosopher's understanding of our relationship to history in which God is revealed. ""This book is playful, disturbing, passionate, light-hearted, accessible, and profound-all at the same time. McLeod-Harrison engages the depths of our lives and does so with a hard-won grace--a grace that God gives on the other side of our suffering and striving. This book will delight its readers and gently lead them further into life with God."" --Jonathan R. Wilson Pioneer McDonald Professor of Theology Carey Theological College ""Apologizing for God is a remarkable achievement on two counts. First, through drawing on the resources of his own academic and personal journey, McLeod-Harrison narrates into existence a hospitable and much needed space between the epistemological extremes of the modernism and postmodernism. Second, through a series of word studies--rich in literary allusion and philosophical exploration--he invites readers to encounter a God who is much more relevant than the valid conclusion of a sound argument. The book may surprise at points. It will not disappoint."" --Shirley A. Mullen President and Professor of History Houghton College Mark S. McLeod-Harrison is Professor of Philosophy at George Fox University. He is the author of Make/Believing the World(s), Repairing Eden, and Rationality and Belief in God. He is an Anglican priest.

Apologizing for God

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

Wipf and Stock

If humans are not capable of immortality, then eschatological doctrines of heaven and hell make little sense. On that Christians agree. But not all Christians agree on whether humans are essentially immortal. Some hold that the early church was right to borrow from the ancient Greek philosophers and to bring their sense of immortality to bear on the interpretation of biblical passages about the afterlife. Others, however, suggest that we are inherently mortal, and only conditionally immortal. This latter view is usually associated with an annihilationist interpretation of the doctrine of hell and a rejection of eternal torment.In a philosophical analysis and argument, McLeod-Harrison proposes that humans are, indeed, immortal, but not essentially so. But neither are we immortal accidentally or conditionally. Instead, immortality is an enduring property--a property we cannot lose once created. McLeod-Harrison carefully delineates the sense of immortality he defends and provides a broadly Christian philosophical argument for it. The argument, if correct, leaves the recent suggestion that the unredeemed are annihilated on unsteady metaphysical feet. However, McLeod-Harrison does not defend eternal conscious punishment for the unredeemed, but suggests some ways to think about the possibility of a universal salvation.

The Resurrection of Immortality

If humans are not capable of immortality, then eschatological doctrines of heaven and hell make little sense. On that Christians agree. But not all Christians agree on whether humans are essentially immortal. Some hold that the early church was right to borrow from the ancient Greek philosophers and to bring their sense of immortality to bear on the interpretation of biblical passages about the afterlife. Others, however, suggest that we are inherently mortal, and only conditionally immortal. This latter view is usually associated with an annihilationist interpretation of the doctrine of hell and a rejection of eternal torment. In a philosophical analysis and argument, McLeod-Harrison proposes that humans are, indeed, immortal, but not essentially so. But neither are we immortal accidentally or conditionally. Instead, immortality is an enduring property-a property we cannot lose once created. McLeod-Harrison carefully delineates the sense of immortality he defends and provides a broadly Christian philosophical argument for it. The argument, if correct, leaves the recent suggestion that the unredeemed are annihilated on unsteady metaphysical feet. However, McLeod-Harrison does not defend eternal conscious punishment for the unredeemed, but suggests some ways to think about the possibility of a universal salvation.

The Resurrection of Immortality: An Essay in Philosophical Eschatology

Cascade Books

If radical postmodernism offers nothing more than arbitrary fictions and modernism is coldly but meaninglessly objective, where is reality? Apologizing for God argues that reality rests in the lives we live in history. In other words, it argues that living as understood on the basis of the incarnational nature of Christianity is an appropriate response to our current cultural situation. Partly philosophical, partly theological, and deeply Christian, Apologizing for God explores the importance of living in the presence of God as revealed in the autobiographies of our lives. Although not autobiographical in the strict sense, this book is an apologetic for the truth of Christianity explained through one Christian philosopher's understanding of our relationship to history in which God is revealed.

Apologizing for God: The Importance of Living in History

Being at Home in the World is a book of Christian Apologetics. But Mark McLeod-Harrison and Phil Smith don't defend Christian faith; instead, they invite readers into faith. In the course of making this invitation, the authors raise suspicions against modern naturalism, offer respectful criticisms of major religions, and explain how Christian beliefs provide an organizing center of a flourishing human life. Their invitation to Christian faith is philosophically sophisticated, but it is also honest and personal; McLeod-Harrison and Smith tell their own stories of how they grew up as Christians and why they remain believers.

Being at Home in the World: A New Christian Apologetic

Phil Smith

Incarnations of the Heart: Poems and Prose Out of History

What happens when the wrench of evolution is dropped into the hopper of Christian theology? Written by a philosopher, Saving the Neanderthals takes evolution as its foil and shows what might have to change in Christian theology in order to make theology compatible with evolution. If the Christian faith is shown consistent with what Mark S. McLeod-Harrison calls “hard evolution,” then the softer versions will also be compatible. Indeed, that is exactly what the book argues, specifically for the Christian doctrines of sin and salvation. These doctrines typically rely on some fairly strong realist version of essentialism, which hard evolution denies; but McLeod-Harrison proposes an approach to sin and salvation that is compatible with the anti-essentialist claims of hard evolution.

Saving the Neanderthals: Sin, Salvation, and Hard Evolution

Christian Books & Bibles

Theology

Fortress Academic

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Books by McLeod-Harrison, Mark S.