Books

From Christian belief about the creation of the world, through to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, Peter Vardy – author of the bestselling Puzzle series – pieces together the story of Christianity with all its complexity and diversity. Discussing the growth of the Church from its early days as a Jewish sect in first-century Palestine, Vardy tells the story of what is now the world’s largest religious tradition.

How do we know the difference between right and wrong? How can we make decisions about issues from germ-line genetic engineering to the regulation of banking, from nuclear power to ethnic bioweapons, from end-of-life care to global warming? What does it mean to live a good life? Ethics Matters introduces students and general readers to the business of making moral decisions, engaging them in meaningful dialogue and inspiring them to find out more. Beginning with a discussion of the question of truth in Ethics, Peter and Charlotte Vardy outline and evaluate major approaches to doing ethics from Natural Law and Virtue Ethics to Situation Ethics and Postmodernism, considering how these might inform decision making in today’s world. Ethics Matters places the latest scholarship in context, clarifying how it relates to today’s biggest challenges, without in any sense ‘dumbing down’.

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GOD MATTERS (31 Oct 2013)

Perhaps human beings are animals, driven by the will to survive and reproduce, perhaps responsibility is a useful fiction and religion is the opium of the masses. Perhaps death is the end, life is ultimately meaningless, brutish and short. Perhaps man is the measure of all things and beauty, truth and justice are open to interpretation. Or, perhaps not. God matters. The choice over whether and what to believe is inescapable because it determines how we live our lives. Nothing matters more. This book encourages and enables students and general readers to ask fundamental questions about the nature and meaning of human life in an open, engaging but academically rigorous way. Centuries of scholarship in the Philosophy of Religion, from Jewish and Muslim as well as Christian traditions, are put in context and critically evaluated. Examples from art, film, and literature show the contemporary relevance of debates which have raged throughout human history.

“To provide breadth, depth, rigour and accessibility all in one introductory text is quite an achievement, but it is one that Peter and Charlotte Vardy have managed.  It really is an excellent read!” Roger Meadowcroft (Head of Religion & Philosophy, The Royal Grammar School, Guildford)

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GOOD & BAD RELIGION (2010)

Religion is a central aspect of culture, as is the critical evaluation of different types of religion. Since 9/11 religion and different manifestations of it have been far more in the public eye in western societies than they had been since the Enlightenment. Yet, not all forms of religion are necessarily good for those who adhere to them and for others. Some types of religion are dehumanizing and need to be resisted whilst others are profoundly humanizing and good. In “Good and Bad Religion” Peter Vardy, one of the leading moral educators in the UK, seeks to provide criteria to separate good and bad manifestations of religion – central to this are United Nations declarations on rights and the broad agreement, found in the Western and Eastern philosophical conditions, that there is a single human nature which all human beings share and certain types of attitudes and behaviour can be profoundly damaging.

“please buy and read this valuable, important, and seemingly overlooked book so that one may add an informed viewpoint to the debate, rather than retreating to a comfortable bunker position, hurling insults at the other side.” Amazon 5* reviewer, 2014

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WHAT IS TRUTH (2003)

At a time when truth is seen increasingly as a dirty word, there seem to be no firm landmarks that can hold sure and unchanged in a sea of relativity. Many deny the validity of any search for truth while others are convinced thay have it and seek to impose it on others. This book charts a course between these opposing movements of relativism and religious fundamentalism, drawing on such thinkers as Aristotle, Plato, Wittgenstein, Marx, Freud, Nietzche and Kant, as well as on a broad spectrum of religious beliefs. It clearly argues for the case of truth and the need to search, challenging us to think about issues that go to the very heart of who we are as human beings and what sort of lives we should live.