Most of us believe everything happens for a reason. Whether it is "God's will","karma", or "fate," we want to believe that nothing in the world, especially disasters and tragedies, is a random, meaningless event. But now, as never before, confident scientific assertions that the world embodies a profound contingency are challenging theological claims that God acts providentially in the world. The random and meandering path of evolution is widely used as an argument that God did not create life.Abraham's Dice explores the interplay between chance and providence in the monotheistic religious traditions, looking at how their interaction has been conceptualized as our understanding of the workings of nature has changed. This lively historical conversation has generated intense ongoing theological debates, and provocative responses from science: what are we to make of the history of our universe, where chance and law have played out in complex ways? Or the evolution of life, where random mutations have challenged attempts to find purpose within evolution and convinced many that human beings are but a "glorious accident"? The enduring belief that everything happens for a reason is examined through a conversation with major scholars, among them holders of prestigious chairs at Oxford and Cambridge Universities and the University of Basel, as well as several Gifford lecturers, and two Templeton prize winners. Organized historically, Abraham's Dice provides a wide-ranging scientific, theological, and biblical foundation to address the question of providence and divine action in a world shot through with contingency.

Product Description: The Oxford Handbook of the Abrahamic Religions includes authoritative yet accessible studies on a wide variety of topics dealing comparatively with Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, as well as with the interactions between the adherents of these religions throughout history...read more

Product Description: Jews, Christians, and Muslims all have a common belief in the sanctity of a core holy scripture, and commentary on scripture (exegesis) was at the heart of all three traditions in the Middle Ages. At the same time, because it dealt with issues such as the nature of the canon, the limits of acceptable interpretation, and the meaning of salvation history from the perspective of faith, exegesis was elaborated in the Middle Ages along the faultlines of interconfessional disputation and polemical conflict...read more

Product Description: Winner of the 2013 Christianity Today Book Award in Missions / Global AffairsWinner of the Aldersgate Prize Honorable MentionWinner of the 2014 International Studies Association International Ethics Section Book AwardIn the wake of massive injustice, how can justice be achieved and peace restored? Is it possible to find a universal standard that will work for people of diverse and often conflicting religious, cultural, and philosophical backgrounds? In Just and Unjust Peace, Daniel Philpott offers an innovative and hopeful response to these questions...read more

Product Description: Religion and Terrorism: The Use of Violence in Abrahamic Monotheism provides theoretical analysis of the nature of religious terrorism and religious martyrdom and also delves deeply into terrorist groups and beliefs in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam...read more

Product Description: Written from a communication perspective, Interfaith Dialogue in Practice provides useful strategies for increasing understanding among the three Abrahamic religions--Christianity, Islam, Judaism. Authentic dialogue is as concerned about communication as it is theology...read more

Product Description: "A major challenge for people of faith is to resist the growing demonization of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism . . . I want to do something to build bridges between the three religions. I feel called to embody in my own life the healing, the reconciliation, the unity I long for between people of different religions" Art Gish became involved in the life and worship of all three religions; he considered himself a Christian, a Muslim, and a Jew, and worked at integrating those three perspectives into his life...read more

Product Description: Welcome to the deeper dimensions of interfaith dialogue―exploring that which divides us personally, spiritually and institutionally."We believe that interfaith dialogue holds the key to a healing that calls us back to purpose and to meaning...read more