Recommended Reading
Jim Wallis
What will it take to solve the biggest issues of our time: extreme and needless poverty, global warming and environmental degradation, terrorism and the endless cycle of violence, racism, human trafficking, health care and education, and other pressing problems? While Washington offers only the politics of blame and fear, Jim Wallis, the man who changed the conversation about faith and politics, has traveled the country and found a nation hungry for a politics of solutions and hope. He shows us that a revival is happening, as people of faith and moral conviction seek common ground for change.
Wallis also reminds us that religious faith was a driving force behind our greatest national reforms, such as the abolition of slavery and the civil rights movement. These "great awakenings" happened periodically at crucial times in our nation's history to propel us toward the common good. The time is ripe for another movement that will transform this country. With The Great Awakening, Wallis helps us rediscover our moral center and provides both the needed inspiration and a concrete plan to hold politics accountable and find solutions to our greatest challenges.
Adam Kahane
Adam Kahane spent years working in the world's hotspots, and came away with a new understanding of how to resolve conflict in a way that seems reasonable - and doable - to all parties. The result is Solving Tough Problems. Written in a relaxed, persuasive style, this is not a "how-to" book with glib answers, but rather, a very personal story of the author's progress from a young "expert" convinced of the need to provide cold, "correct" answers to an effective facilitator of positive change - by learning how to create environments that enable new ideas and creative solutions to emerge. The book explores the connection between individual learning and institutional change, and how leaders can move beyond politeness and formal statements, beyond routine debate and defensiveness, toward deeper and more productive dialogue. Both tough and inspiring, the book explores models, technologies, and examples that foster and facilitate "dialogues of the heart."
Robert Alter
Acclaimed for its masterful new translation and insightful commentary, The David Story is a fresh, vivid rendition of one of the great works in Western literature. Robert Alter's brilliant translation gives us David, the beautiful, musical hero who slays Goliath and, through his struggles with Saul, advances to the kingship of Israel. But this David is also fully human: an ambitious, calculating man who navigates his life's course with a flawed moral vision. The consequences for him, his family, and his nation are tragic and bloody. Historical personage and full-blooded imagining, David is the creation of a literary artist comparable to the Shakespeare of the history plays.
Robert Alter
A brilliant new translation and commentary of one of the Bible's most cherished and powerful books.
Like the Five Books of Moses a cornerstone of the scriptural canon, the Book of Psalms has been a source of solace and joy for countless readers over millennia. The cleansing purity of its images invites reflection and supplication in times of sorrow. The musicality of its powerful rhythms moves readers to celebration of good tidings. So today as it has been throughout our past, this is a book to be cherished as the grounding for our daily lives.
This timeless poetry is beautifully wrought by a scholar whose translation of the Five Books of Moses was hailed as a "godsend" by Seamus Heaney and a "masterpiece" by Robert Fagles. Robert Alter's The Book of Psalms captures the simplicity, the physicality, and the coiled rhythmic power of the Hebrew, restoring the remarkable eloquence of these ancient poems. His learned and insightful commentary shines a light on the obscurities of the text.
Janet I. Miller
Empower your community for social change with this six-session program, which covers basic church teachings in human dignity, structural sin, the reign of God, stewardship, globalization and solidarity. Handouts, worksheets, discussion questions and prayer suggestions make it easy to use. References to church documents, endnotes, an extensive bibliography and the author — an experienced formation catechist — make this a process you can trust.
Reviews
“The Christian way shines through this book, breaking into a world often blinded by consumerism and the need to win at all costs. In six practical sessions, Janet awakens in us our own right to participate in God’s continuous re-creation of this world. Yes, wholeness and true life can become a reality for all.”
— Erica R. Marshall, Townsville Q, Australia
Addicted to War takes on the most active, powerful and destructive military in the world. Hard-hitting, carefully documented and heavily illustrated, it reveals why the United States has been involved in more wars in recent years than any other country. Read Addicted to War to find out who benefits from these military adventures, who pays-and who dies. Over 120,000 copies of the previous edition are in print. This new edition is substantially reworked and fully updated through the War in Iraq. "A witty and devastating portrait of U.S. military policy."-Howard Zinn
Joel Andreas wrote and illustrated The Incredible Rocky, the biting satire that introduced over 100,000 people to the unsavory activities of the Rockefeller family.
Romand Coles
In Christianity, Democracy, and the Radical Ordinary, theologian Stanley Hauerwas and political theorist Romand Coles reflect about possibilities and practices of radical democracy and radical ecclesia that take form in the textures of relational care for the radical ordinary. They seek to shift political and theological imaginations beyond the limits of contemporary political formations (such as global capitalism, the mega-state, and empire), which they argue are based upon both the denial and production of death.
Hauerwas and Coles call us to a revolutionary politics of wild patience that seeks transformation through attentive practices of listening, relationship-building, and a careful tending to places, common goods, and diverse possibilities for flourishing. Both authors translate back and forth across--as well as dwell in the tensions between--the languages of radical democracy and of trial, cross, and resurrection. Engaging each other through a variety of genres--from essays, to letters, to cowriting and dialogue--Hauerwas and Coles seek to enact a politics that is evangelical in its radical receptivity across strange differences and that cultivates power in relation to vulnerability.
The authors argue that there is a strong relation between hope and imagination, as well as between imagination and the encounter with and memory of those who have lived with receptive generosity toward the radical ordinary. Hence, throughout this book they think extensively in relation to specific lives and practices: from Ella Baker and the early Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee organizing efforts for beloved community and civil rights, to L'Arche communities founded by Jean Vanier, to contemporary faith-based radical democratic organizing efforts in dozens of cities by the Industrial Areas Foundation. Pushing and pulling each other into new and insightful journeys of political imagination, this conversation between a radical Christian and a radical democratic trickster spurs us toward a politics that acknowledges, tends to, and enacts the powers of the radical ordinary.
Craig Hovey
In modern-day America, it is hard for Christians to imagine ever dying for their faith. And yet in To Share in the Body, author Craig Hovey challenges Christians to view martyrdom not as relegated to the past or to remote parts of the world but rather as having profound implications for Christian witness today. By examining the Gospel of Mark's recurring theme of martyrdom, Hovey argues that martyrdom is a critical aspect of the gospel and therefore crucial to how the church today remembers martyrs and understands Christian discipleship. Written by an up-and-coming theologian, To Share in the Body provides engaging theological reflection that will benefit not only scholars and students of theology but also anyone interested in understanding a biblical view of martyrdom. The book also includes a foreword by Samuel Wells.
Ronald F. Thiemann
Ronald F. Thiemann, dean of that bastion of liberal theology, the Harvard Divinity School, seems an unlikely source for the radical proposal made in this book: to remove from American public life the traditional separation of church and state. For years a kind of de-Christianized civic moral piety provided Americans with an adequate and non-sectarian sense of purpose and virtue, but this consensus has long broken down in the culture wars of the past 30 years. In an effort to fill the resulting vacuum, Thiemann controversially proposes a revised liberalism that will allow religious views an equal voice in public affairs.
David Augsburger
We all want to improve our spiritual lives, but the task often can seem overwhelming. And while there is no shortage of self-help gurus hawking their wares, not enough Christians are making meaningful progress toward a deeper relationship with God. Now best-selling author David Augsburger reveals the life-giving nature of surrender and service in Dissident Discipleship. Moving beyond self-centered therapies and ''Lone Ranger'' spirituality, Augsburger reveals that our spiritual lives will grow when we look outside of ourselves and lay down our lives in service to God and neighbor. Anyone interested in the topic of spiritual growth, from pastors to counselors, will be sure to welcome Augsburger's balanced approach.
Scott Bader-Saye
Through politics, marketing, news programming, and popular culture we are taught to fear, often in ways that profit others. But what does all this fear do to our moral lives as it forms (or deforms) our character and our judgment? Drawing on Christian scripture and tradition, Following Jesus in a Culture of Fear articulates a response to fear that resists an ethic of security in favor of fostering an ethic of risk. The Christian virtues of hospitality, peacefulness, and generosity are presented as the way to defeat the counter-virtues of suspicion, preemption, and control. Pastors, students, and lay people will find this unique book both accessible and intriguing. EXCERPT Do not be afraid. We live in a time when this biblical refrain cannot be repeated too often. Both John Paul II in 1978 and his successor, Benedict XVI, in 2005 used these words to begin their papacies. Among all the things the church has to say to the world today, this may be the most important. No one has to be convinced that we live in fearful times, though we are not always sure what we should be afraid of and why. We suspect that our fears make us vulnerable to manipulation, but we find it hard to quell the fear long enough to analyze how it is being produced and directed for the benefit of others. One reason we are a more fearful culture today, despite the fact that the dangers are not objectively greater than in the past, is because some people have incentives and means to heighten, manipulate, and exploit our fears. Fear is a strong motivator, and so those who want and need to motivate otherspoliticians, advertisers, media executives, advocacy groups, even the churchturn to fear to bolster their message. I call this the fear for profit syndrome, and it is rampant. We have become preoccupied with unlikely dangers that take on the status of imminent threats, producing a culture where fear determines a disproportionate number of our personal and communal decisions. The sense of ever-increasing threats can overwhelm our ability to evaluate and respond proportionately to each new risk, thus we allow fear to overdetermine our actions.
Stanley Hauerwas
"Matthew" is the third volume in the forty-volume "Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible". This commentary, like each in the series, is designed to serve the church--through aid in preaching, teaching, study groups, and so forth--and demonstrate the continuing intellectual and practical viability of theological interpretation of the Bible.
The church has often been trapped by consensus, and its theologians have often got lost in abstractions, but the radical insights of its Scriptures have never been forgotten. In this collection a leading New Testament scholar and a historian of the radical Reformation demonstrate the power of the gospel over two millennia and into the present to inspire dreams of a more just world, and to give courage to make those dreams come true.
Jim Wallis
What will it take to solve the biggest issues of our time: extreme and needless poverty, global warming and environmental degradation, terrorism and the endless cycle of violence, racism, human trafficking, health care and education, and other pressing problems? While Washington offers only the politics of blame and fear, Jim Wallis, the man who changed the conversation about faith and politics, has traveled the country and found a nation hungry for a politics of solutions and hope. He shows us that a revival is happening, as people of faith and moral conviction seek common ground for change.
Wallis also reminds us that religious faith was a driving force behind our greatest national reforms, such as the abolition of slavery and the civil rights movement. These "great awakenings" happened periodically at crucial times in our nation's history to propel us toward the common good. The time is ripe for another movement that will transform this country. With The Great Awakening, Wallis helps us rediscover our moral center and provides both the needed inspiration and a concrete plan to hold politics accountable and find solutions to our greatest challenges.
Richard Boast
Studying Crown Maori land policy and practice in the period 1869–1929, from the establishment of the Native Land Court power until the cessation of large-scale Crown purchasing by Gordon Coates, this investigation chronicles the bleak and grim tidal wave of Crown purchasing that dominated the Maori people under very difficult circumstances. While recognizing that the government purchasing of Maori land was in its own way driven by genuine, if blinkered, idealism, this work's deep research on land purchasing policy gives renewed insight on the significant politicians of the era, such as Sir Donald McLean, John Balance, and John McKenzie who were strong advocates of expanded and state-controlled land purchasing.
Ronald J. Sider
Evangelicals today probably have more political influence in the U.S. than at any time in the last century--but they may not be certain what to do with it. It has been difficult to develop a unified voice on pressing issues such as social justice and moral renewal. The Scandal of Evangelical Politics provides evangelical Christians with a systematic political philosophy to guide and sustain political activism. Soundly based in biblical principles and guided by a careful study of society, this book will guide readers into more thoughtful and effective political activity. Practical, balanced, and nonpartisan, The Scandal of Evangelical Politics will be a welcome resource during the race for the 2008 presidential election.
Ronald J. Sider
"Just Generosity" calls Christians to examine their priorities and their pocketbooks in the face of a scandalous tendency to overlook those among us who suffer while we live in practical opulence. This holistic approach to helping the poor goes far beyond donating clothes or money, envisioning a world in which faith-based groups work with businesses, the media, and the government to help end poverty in the world's richest nation. This updated edition includes current statistics, policy recommendations, and discussions covering everything from welfare reform, changes to Medicade, and the Social Security debate.''Sider's most important book since Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger.''--Jim Wallis, author, God's Politics. ''Sider knows how to lift up people in need.. [An] important and challenging book.''--John Ashcroft, former Attorney General of the United States
Jeffrey Sachs
A landmark exploration of the way out of extreme poverty for the worlds poorest citizens
Among the most eagerly anticipated books of any year, this landmark exploration of prosperity and poverty distills the life work of an economist Time calls one of the worlds 100 most influential people. Sachss aim is nothing less than to deliver a big picture of how societies emerge from poverty. To do so he takes readers in his footsteps, explaining his work in Bolivia, Russia, India, China, and Africa, while offering an integrated set of solutions for the interwoven economic, political, environmental, and social problems that challenge the poorest countries. Marrying passionate storytelling with rigorous analysis and a vision as pragmatic as it is fiercely moral, The End of Poverty is a truly indispensable work.
‘This is the best single summary of the political choices facing food and agriculture policymakers that has been written in this decade.’
Pat Mooney, Executive Director, the ETC Group
‘An excellent resource for those mapping the increasing control of our food chain by international players.’
Suman Sahai, Director, Gene Campaign, India
‘A comprehensive and outstanding analysis.’
Keith E. Maskus, Professor of Economics, University of Colorado at Boulder
‘Brave, visionary and inevitably controversial.’
Andrew Bennett, Executive Director, Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture
William Stringfellow
A great introduction to the Principalities and Powers
