Evil and Suffering
Posted on 22 July 2012
Plotinus struggles to explain the presence of suffering, evil and ugliness in a world caused by purely good principles – and tells us what role we should play in that world.
27 comments
Posted on 16 March 2014
The Book of Job provokes Saadia, Maimonides, Ibn Tibbon and Gersonides to reflect on why God allows suffering.
7 comments
Posted on 10 January 2016
The Four Noble Truths of the Buddha, and the function they are supposed to play in our lives.
10 comments
Posted on 13 November 2016
Yoga as presented by Patañjali offers a practical complement to the Sāṃkhya theory of the cosmos and the self.
2 comments
Posted on 17 December 2017
Julian of Norwich’s Shewings and the Cloud of Unknowing lay out challenging paths to knowledge of, and union with, God.
3 comments
Posted on 21 January 2018
An interview about the status of nonhuman animals in ancient Indian philosophy and literature.
1 comments
Posted on 11 March 2018
New ideas and and new universities in Italy and greater Germany including Vienna and Prague, where Jan Hus carries on the radical ideas of Wyclif.
12 comments
Posted on 29 April 2018
Do the cuneiform writings of Babylonian culture show that it had its own philosophy?
14 comments
Posted on 6 May 2018
Peter King, Catarina Dutilh Novaes, and Russ Friedman discuss their approaches to medieval philosophy and its contemporary relevance.
11 comments
Posted on 10 June 2018
Demands for ma’at (justice or truth) and a confrontation with the soul, in the Tale of the Eloquent Peasant and Dispute Between a Man and his Ba.
3 comments
Posted on 24 June 2018
Egyptologist Richard Parkinson joins us to talk about the context and meaning of the Eloquent Peasant and other literary works of ancient Egypt.
2 comments
Posted on 23 December 2018
Is traditional African religion in some sense monotheist, despite the worship of many divinities?
6 comments
Posted on 3 February 2019
Special forms of knowledge and the explanation of misfortunes in African tradition.
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Posted on 29 November 2020
A late 19th-century churchman tries to explain how slavery fit into God’s plan and decide whether the future for African Americans lies in Africa or America.
1 comments
Posted on 27 February 2022
Justus Lipsius draws on Seneca and other Stoics to counsel peace of mind in the face of political chaos, but also writes a work on how such chaos can be avoided.
3 comments
Posted on 5 June 2022
A Renaissance queen supports philosophical humanism and produces literary works on spirituality, love, and the soul.
6 comments
Posted on 11 December 2022
After Albert Cleage and James Cone propose a liberatory interpretation of Christianity, William R. Jones wonders whether God is a white racist. We also follow Black Theology among “Womanist” authors and in South Africa.
2 comments
Posted on 4 December 2011
Peter considers Epicurus’ attempt to dispel the fear of death and the gods, and along the way looks at the topics of soul, atheism, and philosophy as therapy.
21 comments