Prophetic Activism

Prophetic Activism PDF Author: Helene Slessarev-Jamir
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 081474124X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
While the links between conservative Christians and politics have been drawn strongly in recent years, coming to embody what many think of as religious activism, the profoundly religious nature of community organizing and other more left-leaning justice work has been largely overlooked. Prophetic Activism is the first broad comparative examination of progressive religious activism in the United States. Set up as a counter-narrative to religious conservatism, the book offers readers a deeper understanding of the richness and diversity of contemporary religious activism. Helene Slessarev-Jamir offers five case studies of major progressive religious justice movements that have their roots in liberative interpretations of Scripture: congregational community organizing; worker justice; immigrant rights work; peace-making and reconciliation; and global anti-poverty and debt relief. Drawing on intensive interviews with activists at all levels of this work—from pastors and congregational leaders to local organizers and the executive directors of the national networks—she uncovers the ways in which they construct an ethical framework for their work. In addition to looking at predominantly Christian organizations, the book also highlights the growth of progressive activism among Jews, Muslims, and Buddhists who are engaged in reinterpreting their religious texts to support new forms of activism. Religion and Social Transformation series

Prophetic Activism

Prophetic Activism PDF Author: Helene Slessarev-Jamir
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 081474124X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Get Book Here

Book Description
While the links between conservative Christians and politics have been drawn strongly in recent years, coming to embody what many think of as religious activism, the profoundly religious nature of community organizing and other more left-leaning justice work has been largely overlooked. Prophetic Activism is the first broad comparative examination of progressive religious activism in the United States. Set up as a counter-narrative to religious conservatism, the book offers readers a deeper understanding of the richness and diversity of contemporary religious activism. Helene Slessarev-Jamir offers five case studies of major progressive religious justice movements that have their roots in liberative interpretations of Scripture: congregational community organizing; worker justice; immigrant rights work; peace-making and reconciliation; and global anti-poverty and debt relief. Drawing on intensive interviews with activists at all levels of this work—from pastors and congregational leaders to local organizers and the executive directors of the national networks—she uncovers the ways in which they construct an ethical framework for their work. In addition to looking at predominantly Christian organizations, the book also highlights the growth of progressive activism among Jews, Muslims, and Buddhists who are engaged in reinterpreting their religious texts to support new forms of activism. Religion and Social Transformation series

New Media and the Mediatisation of Religion

New Media and the Mediatisation of Religion PDF Author: Gabriel Faimau
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527517888
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 185

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Book Description
New media, including digital and social media, play a central role in producing and reproducing socio-cultural and religious practices. Its presence has not only resulted in changes to the ways in which religious beliefs are practiced, but has also altered the way religious meanings are expressed. How has new media technology informed and influenced religious engagement and participation? In what ways has new media technology enabled religious groups to practice and preach their religious beliefs to a broader audience? To what extent has the emergence of social media and social networking sites shaped religious discourses and religious practices? This volume offers a unique, Africa-centred perspective in response to these questions. While presenting new scholarly developments in the fields of media, religion and culture in Africa, this book also provides empirical and theoretical insights into the intersection between new media and religion.

The Spirit and the Salvation of the Urban Poor

The Spirit and the Salvation of the Urban Poor PDF Author: Brandon Kertson
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1532663447
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
Poverty. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing. Still, poverty is an ever-present reality, even in so-called first world nations like the United States. If the Holy Spirit is the member of the Trinity that is ever present in our world, perhaps the Spirit can be a resource to address poverty. In this pneumatological theology of poverty, Brandon Kertson explores the current state of poverty in the United States, arguing its complexities also require complex answers demanding a pneumatological approach that has yet to be offered. Using Renewal theology and pneumatology, Kertson develops a pneumatological four-fold gospel based on Jesus’ pneumatic declaration of Luke 4. He explores how the Spirit addresses poverty through Jesus and the historic and global church, and how we can begin to address poverty through the Spirit today. The Spirit as savior, baptizer, healer, and entelechy of the kingdom lays the foundation for a holistic response to the complex problem of poverty in our country.

Prophetic Leadership and Visionary Hope

Prophetic Leadership and Visionary Hope PDF Author: Barbara Will
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 1512824089
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Thirty years have passed since Cornel West's book Race Matters rose to the top of the bestseller lists in 1993. Yet his book remains as relevant as ever to American culture--even more so, if one considers its influence on contemporary racial justice movements such as Black Lives Matter, prison justice, and the fight for police reform. Prophetic Leadership and Visionary Hope, an edited volume of essays by leading scholars in Black studies, religious studies, and social justice history, looks back to the original 1993 text and forward into the future of racial understanding and healing in our current century, responding to Dr. West's own repeated insistence that we can only understand our present and future by looking back. By reengaging with West's book at this seminal moment, Prophetic Leadership and Visionary Hope offers new points of entry into the thorny issues that the 1993 text addressed: the challenge of leadership in a culture marked by the legacy of white supremacy; the limited value of liberal affirmative action programs in promoting the affirmation of Black humanity; the dangerous seductions of African American conservatism and the question of Black self-regard (what West called "black nihilism"); the necessity and difficulty of cross-race solidarity and cross-religious affinity; the need to channel legitimate Black rage over untenable conditions of existence into productive opportunities and viewpoints. All of these issues are even more marked in American society today. The voices collected in this volume are the legitimate intellectual heirs of the original Race Matters. With essays that span the topics of history, politics, philosophy, religion, cultural studies, music, and aesthetics, Prophetic Leadership and Visionary Hope is as wide-ranging as the thinker whose ideas it engages, interrogates, and celebrates. Contributors:Nkosi Du Bois Anderson, Paul A. Bové, Matthew M. Briones, Farah Jasmine Griffin, Susannah Heschel, Lucius T. Outlaw Jr., Andrew Prevot, Brandon M. Terry, Cornel West, Barbara Will.

Process Theology and Prophetic Faith

Process Theology and Prophetic Faith PDF Author: Bruce G. Epperly
Publisher: Energion Publications
ISBN: 1631998889
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 39

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Book Description
Being prophetic is often thought to be a matter of predicting the future, creating charts of end times events, and scaring people into accepting narrow, authoritarian and other-worldly images of God, humankind, and political involvement. That is a distortion of what prophetic ministry has been and can continue to be. In this booklet, the second of three that integrate process theology with contemporary spiritual life and activity, Bruce Epperly presents a prophetic vision and also a vision of prophetic ministry that is forward looking, but not predictive or controlling, challenging while offering freedom, and positive in its outlook. Epperly is a specialist in bringing difficult concepts to life for everyone. He combines that skill with the short format of the Topical Line Drives series to present a call to prophetic ministry that invites everyone to action, and applies the prophetic voice to lifegiving words and works for all people everywhere and also for the planet we live on. This book may well be the call you need to hear to be a voice and a medium for positive change in our world.

Hope Is Here!

Hope Is Here! PDF Author: Luther E. Smith Jr.
Publisher: Presbyterian Publishing Corp
ISBN: 1646983637
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
Joyful and daunting opportunities to live into God’s dream of justice and beloved community are compelling and available. Hope, says Luther Smith Jr., is essential to the needed personal and social transformations that prepare us for such sacred opportunities. Yet genuine hope is often confused as merely wish fulfillment, optimism, or perceiving better tomorrows. In Hope Is Here! Smith describes how we truly perceive and join “the work of hope,” enlivening us to a life that is oriented toward immediate and future experiences of personal fulfillment, justice, and beloved community. Interpreting five spiritual practices for individuals and congregations to experience the power of hope, this book prepares us to engage racism, mass incarceration, environmental crises, divisive politics, and indifference that imperil justice and beloved community. It delivers the inner resources necessary to work for change through its interpretation of hope. Additionally, each chapter ends with questions that prompt readers to examine their experiences and their readiness to journey with hope. Written for Christians who want to commit themselves to justice and beloved community, this book will provide helpful guidance for a life sustained by God’s gifts of hope and love. Hope is here for our “responsibility” and “response-ability” to live the fulfilling life that God dreams for us.

A Theology of Community Organizing

A Theology of Community Organizing PDF Author: Chris Shannahan
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134737475
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
The rising importance of community organizing in the US and more recently in Britain has coincided with the developing significance of social movements and identity politics, debates about citizenship, social capital, civil society, and religion in the public sphere. At a time when participation in formal political process and membership of faith groups have both declined dramatically, community organizing has provided a new opportunity for small community groups, marginalized urban communities, and people of faith to engage in effective political action through the developments of inter-faith and cross-cultural coalitions of groups. In spite of its renewed popularity, little critical attention has been paid to community organizing. This book places community organizing within debates about the role of religion in the public sphere and the rise of public theology in recent years. The book explores the history, methodology, and achievements of community organizing, engaging in a series of conversations with key community organizers in the US and Britain. This volume breaks new ground by beginning to articulate a cross-cultural and inter-faith ‘Theology for Community Organizing’ that arises from fresh readings of Liberation Theology.

Religion Is Raced

Religion Is Raced PDF Author: Grace Yukich
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479808741
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
Demonstrates how race and power help to explain American religion in the twenty-first century When White people of faith act in a particular way, their motivations are almost always attributed to their religious orientation. Yet when religious people of color act in a particular way, their motivations are usually attributed to their racial positioning. Religion Is Raced makes the case that religion in America has generally been understood in ways that center White Christian experiences of religion, and argues that all religion must be acknowledged as a raced phenomenon. When we overlook the role race plays in religious belief and action, and how religion in turn spurs public and political action, we lose sight of a key way in which race influences religiously-based claims-making in the public sphere. With contributions exploring a variety of religious traditions, from Buddhism and Islam to Judaism and Protestantism, as well as pieces on atheists and humanists, Religion Is Raced brings discussions about the racialized nature of religion from the margins of scholarly and religious debate to the center. The volume offers a new model for thinking about religion that emphasizes how racial dynamics interact with religious identity, and how we can in turn better understand the roles religion—and Whiteness—play in politics and public life, especially in the United States. It includes clear recommendations for researchers, including pollsters, on how to better recognize moving forward that religion is a raced phenomenon. With contributions by Joseph O. Baker, Kelsy Burke, James Clark Davidson, Janine Giordano Drake, Ashley Garner, Edward Orozco Flores, Sikivu Hutchinson, Sarah Imhoff, Russell Jeung, John Jimenez, Jaime Kucinskas, Eric Mar, Gerardo Martí, Omar M. McRoberts, Besheer Mohamed, Dawne Moon, Jerry Z. Park, Z. Fareen Parvez, Theresa W. Tobin, and Rhys H. Williams.

Liberation and the Cosmos

Liberation and the Cosmos PDF Author: Barbara A. Holmes
Publisher: Fortress Press
ISBN: 1506488439
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
The rich legacy of black critical thought, creative expression, and religious reflection come together in these creatively imagined conversations between the elders about the shape and conditions of Black liberation. Barbara A. Holmes has defined key issues of freedom and identity, hypothesizing a meeting of the ancestors assembled "on the other side" to discuss them. Imagine a conversation between Barbara Jordan and Thurgood Marshall on what freedom looks like in relation to law and politics. Or, between Tupac Shakur, Nina Simone, and James Baldwin on art, culture, and liberation. Malcolm X and Harriet Tubman discuss freedom and wholeness, while Audre Lorde, Fannie Lou Hamer, and George Washington Carver talk about liberated bodies. These imagined dialogues open up rich reflection and insight and offer a unique vantage point for understanding the luminaries of liberation down through the generations. An important resource for the contemporary task of Black liberation.

Art, Religion and Resistance in (Post-)Communist Romania

Art, Religion and Resistance in (Post-)Communist Romania PDF Author: Maria Alina Asavei
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030562557
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
This book illuminates the interconnections between politics and religion through the lens of artistic production, exploring how art inspired by religion functioned as a form of resistance, directed against both Romanian national communism (1960-1989) and, latterly, consumerist society and its global market. It investigates the critical, tactical and subversive employments of religious motifs and themes in contemporary art pieces that confront the religious ‘affair’ in post-communist Romania. In doing so, it addresses a key gap in previous scholarship, which has paid little attention to the relationship between religious art and political resistance in communist Central and South-East Europe.