Many scholars assume that all genuine religions are basically similar and that it is possible to define the sphere of religion in terms of the 'sacred' or the 'holy'. In this book, Max Charlesworth argues that we must take the diversity of religions as a primary fact. Any religion is an active response to a revelation of the divine, and human beings receive these revelations, interpret them and develop them in a variety of ways. To illustrate his thesis, he considers a number of examples of the 'invention' of religion, ranging from Australian Aboriginal religions to the Rhineland mystical movement associated with Meister Eckhart in the early fourteenth century, from the seventeenth-century sects like the Muggletonians, to Roman Catholic attempts in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to construct a theological account of doctrinal development and also to formulate a Christian ethic.
We live in a liberal, democratic, multicultural society where ideally the values of personal liberty and autonomy are paramount. In such a society the state, through the law, should not be concerned with telling people how they should live their lives. In spite of this, many of the ethical stances taken in liberal societies are paternalistic and authoritarian. This readable and balanced book is an original discussion of contemporary issues in bioethics. Max Charlesworth argues that as there can be no public consensus on a set of core values – liberal societies accept a variety of religious, non-religious, political and moral stances - there should be a plurality of ethical stances as well. On this basis he discusses issues such as the ending of human life, the new reproductive technologies and ethical distribution of limited health-care resources, particularly hospital care.
Many scholars assume that all genuine religions are basically similar and that it is possible to define the sphere of religion in terms of the 'sacred' or the 'holy'. In this book, Max Charlesworth argues that we must take the diversity of religions as a primary fact. Any religion is an active response to a revelation of the divine, and human beings receive these revelations, interpret them and develop them in a variety of ways. To illustrate his thesis, he considers a number of examples of the 'invention' of religion, ranging from Australian Aboriginal religions to the Rhineland mystical movement associated with Meister Eckhart in the early fourteenth century, from the seventeenth-century sects like the Muggletonians, to Roman Catholic attempts in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to construct a theological account of doctrinal development and also to formulate a Christian ethic.
From the works of the Greek philosophers to the Postmodernist theories of Jacques Derrida and Richard Rorty, this authoritative survey encompasses over two thousand years of interaction between philos
Mostly anthropologists but also advocates for and representatives of aboriginal Australians discuss scholarly revaluations of aboriginal religions, religious business, sacred places, art and religion,
