New Releases by Keith Ward

Philosopher and theologian Keith Ward is one of the most prolific scholars alive. For over forty years Ward has been a respected voice in may ongoing theological and philosophical discussions and his work has influenced a number of key theologians and philosophers working in the areas of faith, science and religion. This reader offers a distillation of Ward''s most incisive pieces collected together for the first time. It also includes a brand new chapter by Keith Ward, ''Friend or Foe?: Reflections on the Relationship Between Faith and Reason'' written specifically for this collection.

''The question of what it is to be a human person is the biggest intellectual question of our day.'' Keith Ward has taught philosophy and theology in British universities for the past 40 years, and he is now weighing in on a major intellectual battle: whether human persons are purely materialistic - nothing but matter - or whether there is another, deeply valuable part of us, which transcends our bodies in nature and moral worth: the soul. For centuries philosophers have debated the question, but the battle has taken the limelight through the works of the New Atheists. In this book Professor Ward guides the reader through a panoply of thinkers and traditions, arguing that there is more to humanity than bodies. In fact, he argues, there is more to the entire universe than the naked eye perceives. (And contrary to the New Atheist assertions, there are good philosophical arguments to back this up!)

Many commentators today claim that religion is dangerous and harmful. In addressing this question, Keith Ward begins by defining what religion actually is and how most human harm has been caused. He then looks at why people say that religion is dangerous, focusing particularly on religious wars and conflicts and on specific attacks on religion, such as the claims that God is wrathful, that religion is intolerant, that religious morality is primitive and cruel. Keith Ward argues that religion produces great good - for example, in terms of hospitals, the abolition of slavery, great art and music, moral heroism, and philosophy and science. Religion, he concludes, is the best rational basis for morality.

Distinguished philosopher Keith Ward here weighs in on what are perhaps the greatest metaphysical quandaries of our time: is the human mind merely an intricate mass of nerve cells and synapses, or is it something more? Are human beings simply accidental results of millions of genetic copying-mistakes and freak accidents of nature, or is there actually something deeper and more sublime at the heart of both material reality and human existence? Using philosophical and metaphysical reflections rather than religious considerations Ward argues, winsomely and intelligently, that human consciousness does in fact transcend our physical bodies. Moreover, he posits, the fact that we are more than matter not only has profound implications for our human worth but also provides clues to the nature, value, and purpose of the cosmos.

Does belief in God require a sacrifice of intelligence?

Keith Ward introduces this volume on the world''s greatest ever bestseller by suggesting that the Bible is neither a book dictated by God, as some believe, nor just a set of out-dated taboos and politically slanted histories, as those at the opposite extreme maintain. Rather, it is a very mixed set of documents, by many different writers, from many different times, which records the struggle of many people in one particular religious tradition to respond to their discernments of a transcendent spiritual power. What makes the Bible distinctive among other religious books is that the dominant image of transcendence, of spirituality, that slowly develops in its pages is the image of a power that helps humans to seek a moral goal in history even when such a thing would seem impossible to achieve - were it not for the power of grace. The Bible is, in short, a spiritual text.

From ultra-light flying to vibrating bombs, The Cactus Flower offers an array of short stories, personal memoirs, and poetry that reflect the life of author Keith Neale Ward. The selections address the realities of family, the adventures of youth, the inspirational messages of life, and the knowledge gained from experience. In the lead fiction story, The Thinking Man, an interesting phenomenon occurs when The Director combines the occupants of two separate, but adjoining auditoriums. An inspirational entry, Infinite Possibilities, tells the story of one of Ward''s more unique engineering professors who challenges the law of gravity. In A Shot in the Dark, Ward narrates the account of employing a unique solution to rescue his brother, Ricky, from a Cleveland pool hall. In The Cactus Flower, Ward shares his experiences and the lessons learned during his lifetime. Some humorous and entertaining, others inspirational and moving, the stories reiterate Ward''s contention that something special happens during every encounter, every day. The key is to share the joy of these experiences with other people.

Bender and Ward present practical applications of financial theories for experienced financial managers using simple mathematics to convey the conceptual logic behind corporate financial strategy.

Decisions are a part of everyday life. Decisions can range from the type of job offer we accept, the type of car we purchase, or the kind of home we select. However, in many decisions there are multiple criteria upon which we make our final decision. Mathematical functions can be developed, called utility functions, which model how the decision maker ranks the alternatives under consideration. There are various utility functions; in this thesis we have examined the linear and Tchebycheff utility functions and a hybrid of the two. The purpose of this thesis was to approximate the assumed true utility function (we assumed that the true utility function caused the score and rank of the alternatives in the sample data we obtained from Consumer Reports) by fitting the previously mentioned utility functions to the scored data. We considered three products. The goodness of fit measures we used were the sum of absolute deviations and the sum of squares residual.^It was a our goal to show, for the data set we selected, how the linear, Tchebycheff, and the hybrid of the two performed in comparison to one another for each product. The results showed that for a set of alternatives that appeared to have a solely a linear utility function, the hybrid of the linear and Tchebycheff utility functions was able to perform best. In considering all products chosen for this thesis, the true utility function never seemed to be Tchebycheff entirely; yet by adding the linear utility function to it, the goodness of fit results were favorable. In general, the hybrid utility function can be of superior performance compared to the linear and Tchebycheff utility functions independently. The hybrid utility function could provide increased flexibility when used in conjunction with an interactive method.^The hybrid utility function is of notable advantage as it can be modified to not only incorporate the combination of linear and Tchebycheff utility functions; it also can be extended to quadratic-Tchebycheff combinations or higher ordered combinations of utility functions and used in union with interactive methods.

The Big Questions in Science and Religion explores these ten queries to determine whether religious beliefs can survive in the scientific age. Author Keith Ward, an expert in the field of world religions, devotes a full chapter to each question, wherein he considers concepts from Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, and Christianity, alongside the speculations of cosmologists, physicians, mathematicians, and philosophers.

An engaging and convincing response from a leading philosopher-theologian to Dawkins'' arguments

Offers a reflection on a series of ethical problems in the light of what the world''s major faith traditions have to say about them. The author traces the consequences of religious views on morality by considering moral problems such as violence, human genetic modification and ethical concerns around the beginning and ending of human life.

The ultimate test of marketing investment, and indeed any investment, is whether it creates value for shareholders. But few marketing investments are evaluated from this perspective. Increasingly, boards of directors and city analysts the world over are dissatisfied with this lack of accountability. Cranfield School of Management has been addressing this problem by working with a range of blue-chip companies. They have created a new framework which shows how marketing systematically contributes to shareholder value based on three key questions-•Does the promised market exist?•Will the strategy deliver the market share promised?•Will the market share create shareholder value?This groundbreaking new book explains the principles and practice behind rigorous due diligence in marketing for Marketing and Finance Directors, CEOs, Strategists and MBA students wanting to understand the key drivers of modern businessSurely, the time has come for marketing directors to take their rightful place in the boardroom by proving that what they are doing creates shareholder value added?* Connects marketing plans and investment to the valuation of the firm and how it can contribute to increasing shareholder value* Systematic and practical approach useful for both practitioners and students* New paperback edition

Extraordinary performance from ordinary people is a must read for the high performing manager with the ambition to reach corporate leadership status. The book is as practical as it is exciting. How to succeed and which personal qualities are required from those who display the capability for great responsibility, are the themes that run throughout. The book focuses on both the key value adding activities and disciplines for driving through change and the styles of corporate leaders that attract success Extraordinary performance from ordinary people highlights how the leaders of the company, as a corporate team, can adopt and adapt the four value creating styles. It emphasises how to recognise which leadership framework suits the challenges of particular competitive environments. This insight nurtures a confidence to act decisively adopting an approach to communication which harnesses the energies of the organisation to achieve stretching performance targets. It concentrates on how leaders make a difference by what they do. Diagnostic models that show what really works and under which circumstances are core to this book.

Designing World Class Corporate Strategies considers the key role of corporate centres within very large, primarily multi-business organisations. At present, these corporate centres are under attack as not creating and value and merely adding cost to their groups. The authors have developed a corporate configurations model which demonstrates four ways in which corporate centres can add significant value. However this requires the centre to act in specific ways depending on the external environment in which the group is operating. Designing World Class Corporate Strategies is highly readable, with a large number of illustrative examples included in the text. Academic references and theoretical underpinnings are placed in the final chapter of the book, so that the book is focused on the professional market for strategy and creating value.

While building on the author''s previous book, "Financial Aspects of Marketing," this book is designed to provide marketing managers and students with the financial know-how to maximize the cost effectiveness of their marketing activities.

A review of a range of natural resources projects prepared during the 1990s by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) suggests that existing practices of economic analysis tend to capture only some of the impacts that such projects typically have. Historically, project analysis at ADB and elsewhere has tended to concentrate on identifying a monetized benefit in excess of 12 percent economic internal rate of return (EIRR) from direct resource use impacts, and simply identifying and describing "nonquantifiable" impacts. With the adoption of the ADB Environment Policy and the growing recognition that it is very often the poorest who suffer most from natural resource depletion and degradation, a case is made that more analytic rigor in capturing as many as possible of the resource impacts of such projects is desirable. This report therefore suggests some specific techniques to strengthen the economic analysis of natural resources projects, including improving the application of the "benefits transfer" method, defining the spatial boundaries of project economic analysis, establishing an appropriate accounting stance for the project, establishing the project''s counterfactual (i.e., without-project) situation, and including the health impacts of such projects. The use of appropriate discount rates for sensitivity analysis and for investment decision making are discussed, and guidance is given on presenting the results of a project analysis and summarizing the poverty reduction impact of natural resource management projects.

Keith Ward''s great contribution to theological scholarship is his exploration of what he calls comparative theology. He describes this as, a way of doing theology in which scholars holding different world-views share together in the investigation of concepts of ultimate reality, the final human goal, and the way to achieve it. This book is devoted to that theme with essays on the central topics of his mature work: revelation, creation, human nature and community.

Religion is an important social force, both for good and evil, in the modern world. This book considers the main ways in which religion and society interact, and the ways in which the major world religions need to adapt themselves in the modern world. The author, a Christian theologian, describes the major types of religious community in the world, and proposes a radical vision of the church as a person-affirming, world-transforming society in the emerging global community of many faiths and cultures.

The "new materialism" argues that science and religious belief arencompatible. This book considers such arguments from cosmology, biology, andociobiology view points, and shows that modern scientific knowledge does notndermine belief in God, but points to the existence of God.

This book is the second part of a major project of comparative theology begun with Religion and Revelation (Clarendon Press, 1994), which looks at major concepts of faith in all four of the main scriptural religions of the world. In Religion and Creation, the author explores the idea of a creator God in the work of twentieth century writers from Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity. He develops a positive concept of God which stresses God''s dynamic and responsive relation to the temporal structure of the universe, and the importance of that structure to the self-expression of the divine being. Professor Ward goes on to present a Trinitarian doctrine of creation, drawing inspiration from a wider set of theistic traditions and recent discussions in physics in the realm of cosmology.