Elusive Togetherness

Elusive Togetherness PDF Author: Paul Lichterman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780691096506
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 331

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Book Description
Many scholars and citizens alike have counted on civic groups to create broad ties that bind society. Some hope that faith-based civic groups will spread their reach as government retreats. Yet few studies ask how, if at all, civic groups reach out to their wider community. Can religious groups--long central in civic America--create broad, empowering social ties in an unequal, diverse society? Over three years, Paul Lichterman studied nine liberal and conservative Protestant-based volunteering and advocacy projects in a mid-sized American city. He listened as these groups tried to create bridges with other community groups, social service agencies, and low-income people, just as the 1996 welfare reforms were taking effect. Counter to long-standing arguments, Lichterman discovered that powerful customs of interaction inside the groups often stunted external ties and even shaped religion's impact on the groups. Comparing groups, he found that successful bridges outward depend on group customs which invite reflective, critical discussion about a group's place amid surrounding groups and institutions. Combining insights from Alexis de Tocqueville, John Dewey, and Jane Addams with contemporary sociology, Elusive Togetherness addresses enduring questions about civic and religious life that elude the popular "social capital" concept. To create broad civic relationships, groups need more than the right religious values, political beliefs, or resources. They must learn new ways of being groups.

Elusive Togetherness

Elusive Togetherness PDF Author: Paul Lichterman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780691096506
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 331

Get Book Here

Book Description
Many scholars and citizens alike have counted on civic groups to create broad ties that bind society. Some hope that faith-based civic groups will spread their reach as government retreats. Yet few studies ask how, if at all, civic groups reach out to their wider community. Can religious groups--long central in civic America--create broad, empowering social ties in an unequal, diverse society? Over three years, Paul Lichterman studied nine liberal and conservative Protestant-based volunteering and advocacy projects in a mid-sized American city. He listened as these groups tried to create bridges with other community groups, social service agencies, and low-income people, just as the 1996 welfare reforms were taking effect. Counter to long-standing arguments, Lichterman discovered that powerful customs of interaction inside the groups often stunted external ties and even shaped religion's impact on the groups. Comparing groups, he found that successful bridges outward depend on group customs which invite reflective, critical discussion about a group's place amid surrounding groups and institutions. Combining insights from Alexis de Tocqueville, John Dewey, and Jane Addams with contemporary sociology, Elusive Togetherness addresses enduring questions about civic and religious life that elude the popular "social capital" concept. To create broad civic relationships, groups need more than the right religious values, political beliefs, or resources. They must learn new ways of being groups.

Theopoetics and Religious Difference

Theopoetics and Religious Difference PDF Author: Marius van Hoogstraten
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
ISBN: 3161598008
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
"Why are interreligious encounters and relations both more troubling and more promising than typically assumed, and how can this be embraced? In engaging the contemporary theological discourse of "theopoetics," Marius van Hoogstraten offers a way of approaching religious difference that, while perhaps unusual to readers familiar with more conventional theology, may be especially fitting for this age."--Provided by publisher

For Seven Lifetimes

For Seven Lifetimes PDF Author: Vatsala Sperling
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1594778353
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 391

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Book Description
How to cultivate a successful marriage based on shared values and spiritual growth • With new chapters on their past 15 years together, stories of happy marriages modeled on the book, marital “obedience,” and the family way to world peace • Reveals how a couple can become an engine for higher spiritual experiences • Includes more than 60 letters written between the authors during their courtship and over 100 full-color photographs, including their traditional wedding in India Defying the norms of her culture and tradition, a highly educated Tamil Brahmin woman decides to arrange her own marriage. Simultaneously, an American book publisher--disillusioned with love in the Western world--looks to India to find a wife by placing an ad in an Indian newspaper. A dialogue between two souls, two families, and two cultures, For Seven Lifetimes chronicles the year-long written courtship of this pair as they share their beliefs on sexuality, desire, gender roles, careers, parenthood, spirituality, and religion. By appreciating the similarities and differences in their worldviews, they initiate a union that reflects their ideals as a couple and the life they will create together. Revealing the secrets to a fulfilling relationship based on shared values and spiritual growth, Vatsala and Ehud outline the principles needed to truly understand the roles of husband and wife and the questions to ask to recognize true spiritual compatibility. With new chapters on the 15 years since their wedding day, stories of happy marriages inspired by and modeled on the book, marital “obedience,” and how a couple can become an engine for higher spiritual experiences, this new edition shows how the successful marriage reflects the greater union between the masculine and the feminine.

Post-Christendom Studies: Volume 3

Post-Christendom Studies: Volume 3 PDF Author: Steven M. Studebaker
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1532699395
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 151

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Book Description
Post-Christendom Studies publishes research on the nature of Christian identity and mission in the contexts of post-Christendom. Post-Christendom refers to places, both now and in the past, where Christianity was once a significant cultural presence, though not necessarily the dominant religion. Sometimes “Christendom” refers to the official link between church and state. The term “post-Christendom” is often associated with the rise of secularization, religious pluralism, and multiculturalism in western countries over the past sixty years. Our use of the term is broader than that however. Egypt for example can be considered a post-Christendom context. It was once a leading center of Christianity. “Christendom” moreover does not necessarily mean official public and dominant religion. For example, under Saddam Hussein, Christianity was probably a minority religion, but, for the most part, Christians were left alone. After America deposed Saddam, Christians began to flee because they became a persecuted minority. In that sense, post-Saddam Iraq is an experience of post-Christendom—it is a shift from a cultural context in which Christians have more or less freedom to exercise their faith to one where they are persecuted and/or marginalized for doing so.

Partisan Publics

Partisan Publics PDF Author: Ann Mische
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691141045
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 455

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Book Description
During the 1980s and 1990s, Brazil struggled to rebuild its democracy after twenty years of military dictatorship, experiencing financial crises, corruption scandals, political protest, and intense electoral contention. In the midst of this turmoil, Ann Mische argues in this remarkable book, youth activists of various stripes played a vital and unrecognized role, contributing new forms of political talk and action to Brazil's emerging democracy. Drawing upon extensive and rich ethnography as well as formal network analysis, Mische tracks the lives of young activists through intersecting political networks, including student movements, church-based activism, political parties, nongovernmental organizations, and business and professional organizations. She probes the problems and possibilities they encountered in combining partisan activism with other kinds of civic involvement. In documenting activists' struggles to develop cross-partisan publics of various kinds, Mische explores the distinct styles of communication and leadership that emerged across organizations and among individuals. Drawing on the ideas of Habermas, Gramsci, Dewey, and Machiavelli, Partisan Publics highlights political communication styles and the forms of mediation and leadership they give rise to--for democratic politics in Brazil and elsewhere. Insightful in its discussion of culture, methodology, and theory, Partisan Publics argues that partisanship can play a significant role in civic life, helping to build relations and institutions in an emerging democracy.

Faith and Race in American Political Life

Faith and Race in American Political Life PDF Author: Robin Dale Jacobson
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
ISBN: 081393205X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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Book Description
Drawing on scholarship from an array of disciplines, this volume provides a deep and timely look at the intertwining of race and religion in American politics. The contributors apply the methods of intersectionality, but where this approach has typically considered race, class, and gender, the essays collected here focus on religion, too, to offer a theoretically robust conceptualization of how these elements intersect--and how they are actively impacting the political process. Contributors Antony W. Alumkal, Iliff School of Theology * Carlos Figueroa, University of Texas at Brownsville * Robert D. Francis, Lutheran Services in America * Susan M. Gordon, independent scholar * Edwin I. Hernández, DeVos Family Foundations * Robin Dale Jacobson, University of Puget Sound * Robert P. Jones, Public Religion Research Institute * Jonathan I. Leib, Old Dominion University * Jessica Hamar Martínez, University of Arizona * Eric Michael Mazur, Virginia Wesleyan College * Sangay Mishra, University of Southern California * Catherine Paden, Simmons College * Milagros Peña, University of Florida * Tobin Miller Shearer, University of Montana * Nancy D. Wadsworth, University of Denver * Gerald R. Webster, University of Wyoming

The Cambridge Handbook of Social Problems:

The Cambridge Handbook of Social Problems: PDF Author: A. Javier Treviño
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108673287
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 598

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Book Description
The introduction of the Affordable Care Act in the United States, the increasing use of prescription drugs, and the alleged abuse of racial profiling by police are just some of the factors contributing to twenty-first-century social problems. The Cambridge Handbook of Social Problems offers a wide-ranging roster of the social problems currently pressing for attention and amelioration. Unlike other works in this area, it also gives great consideration to theoretical and methodological discussions. This Handbook will benefit both undergraduate and graduate students eager to understand the sociology of social problems. It is suitable for classes in social problems, current events, and social theory. Featuring the most current research, the Handbook provides an especially useful resource for sociologists and graduate students conducting research.

Faith, Politics, and Power

Faith, Politics, and Power PDF Author: Rebecca Sager
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199889341
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
During the 2000 presidential campaign, George W. Bush made faith-based social services one of the centerpieces of his domestic agenda. These "faith-based initiatives," supporters argued, would reduce poverty, ease the strain on an overburdened welfare system, and prove more effective than government programs. Opponents feared rampant proselytizing with government funds. Instead, these practices created a system in which neither the greatest hopes of its supporters, nor the greatest fears of its opponents, have been realized. The product of five years of in-depth research, Rebecca Sager's Faith, Politics, and Power offers a systematic examination of where and how these programs were implemented, arguing that faith-based initiatives strayed from supporters' original aim of helping the poor, and instead were used as tools to gain political power by the Republican Party and the conservative evangelical movement.

Engage!

Engage! PDF Author: Dana Horrell
Publisher: Fortress Press
ISBN: 1506452051
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
Author Dana Horrell has called on his years of experience in community action to create this practical guide to help congregations reach out to their local communities. Church leaders often want to do more to engage their community contexts, but when it comes to the actual "how-to-do-it," they find themselves blocked. Engage! provides practical and proven tools to help leaders develop methods and strategies to get started and break through these barriers. These tools, twenty-six in all, are drawn from a variety of sources, including congregations, church consultants, researchers, and nonprofit organizations. Some of these tools have a long history of use and may seem quite familiar, while others may seem new and untested, yet intriguing. These tools represent best practices and have been tried somewhere and found a degree of success.

Making Moral Citizens

Making Moral Citizens PDF Author: Jack Delehanty
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469673177
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 223

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Book Description
This fascinating book takes readers inside the world of faith-based progressive community organizing, one of the largest and most effective social justice movements in the United States. Drawing on rich ethnographic observation and in-depth interviews, Jack Delehanty shows how organizers use religion to build power for change. As Delehanty convincingly demonstrates, religion is more than beliefs, doctrines, and rituals; within activist communities, it also fuels a process of personal reflection and relationship building that transforms people's understandings of themselves, those around them, and the political system. Relational practices like one-on-one conversation and public storytelling take on new significance in faith-based community organizations. Delehanty reveals how progressive organizers use such relational practices to help people see common ground across lines of race, class, and religious sect. From this common ground, organizers work to develop and deploy shared ideas of moral citizenship that emphasize common dignity, equity, and prosperity and nurture the sense that public action is the only way one can live out religious faith.