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Encyclopedia of philosophers on religion - Bernard J. Verkamp
ISBN/ISSN: 0786432861
Presents the religious affiliations and beliefs of 152 prominent philosophers, in A-Z entries. Biographical information is given about each with a special focus on his or her religious upbringing, practice, and beliefs (or lack thereof). Each entry also contains a brief summary of the points each philosopher has made concerning God and religion, typically gathered from a study of the philosopher's writings. An examination of several complex issues, including the existence and nature of God, human immortality, and the nature of religious language and symbolism, is thus aided via numerous points of view.
Asian philosophies. 5th ed. - John M. Koller
ISBN/ISSN: 0131951831
Introduces readers to the rich philosophical and religious ideas of East and South Asia. The collection of primary texts allows readers to think along with the great minds of the Asian traditions, and Koller, an expert in the field, explains the basic ideas and arguments behind these influential texts.
The Cambridge companion to Spinoza's Ethics - Olli Koistinen (ed.)
ISBN/ISSN: 0521618606
Since its publication in 1677, Spinoza's Ethics has fascinated philosophers, novelists, and scientists alike. It is undoubtedly one of the most exciting and contested works of Western philosophy. This Companion volume provides a detailed, accessible exposition of the Ethics. Written by an internationally known team of scholars, it is the first anthology to treat the whole of the Ethics and is written in an accessible style.
Mencius and masculinities : dynamics of power, morality, and maternal thinking - Joanne D. Birdwhistell
ISBN/ISSN: 0791470296
presents the first gender analysis of the Mencius, a central text in the Chinese philosophical tradition. Mencian philosophy, particularly its ideas about the processes by which a man could develop into a cultivated gentleman, was important to the political thought of China's long imperial order. Through close textual readings, Birdwhistell offers a new interpretation of core Mencian ideas about the heart and the self-cultivation of the great man. Birdwhistell argues that the concept of masculinity advocated by the Mencius is derived, although without acknowledgment, from maternal practices and thinking--through processes of appropriation, inversion, and transformation. She illustrates that even though maternal practices and thinking are an invisible dimension of Mencian thought, they are constantly present in the text through their transcoding with agricultural practices and thinking.

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The legend of the Middle Ages : philosophical explorations of medieval Christianity, Judaism, and Islam - Rémi Brague ; translated by Lydia G. Cochrane
ISBN/ISSN: 0226070808
Featuring a penetrating interview and sixteen essays—only three of which have previously appeared in English—this volume explores key intersections of medieval religion and philosophy. With characteristic erudition and insight, Rémi Brague focuses less on individual Christian, Jewish, and Muslim thinkers than on their relationships with one another. Their disparate philosophical worlds, Brague shows, were grounded in different models of revelation that engendered divergent interpretations of the ancient Greek sources they held in common. So, despite striking similarities in their solutions for the philosophical problems they all faced, intellectuals in each theological tradition often viewed the others’ ideas with skepticism, if not disdain.

Such divisions, Brague contends, debunk notions that the medieval Mediterranean world was a European or Islamic cultural center in which different groups of people harmoniously mingled. His clear-eyed and revelatory portrayal of this misunderstood age brings to life not only its philosophical and theological nuances, but also its true lessons for our own time.