Social Issues
Showing 1251–1300 of 1310 resultsSorted by latest
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I Am A Palestinian Christian
$23.00Add to cartA personal testimony of God and politics in the Holy Land. Mitri Raheb is a Palestinian Arab Lutheran Christian pastor who ministers in his hometown of Bethlehem. For many American Christians this combination of identities is incomprehensible. They assume that Palestinian Arabs are Muslims, not Christians, much less Lutherans. Raheb writes as a cultural mediator to the Western Christian world and as a local theologian for the Palestinian community. He grapples with how Palestinian Christians can develop a local theology that can be both truthful and helpful in mediating the conflicts between Israel and Palestine and among Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Both are conflicts in which religion, politics, and collective identity intertwine.
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Know My Name
$32.00Add to cartAdvisory: Some of the views put forth in this book challenge the traditionally accepted teachings on the issue of homosexuality and the Christian faith. The place of gay men and women in the community of faith has become one of the most divisive debates in the church today. Writer and activist Richard Cleaver takes a fresh approach to this issue by examining the struggles of gay men and lesbians in the church through the lens of liberation theology. He offers a “gay” reading of scripture, but one that is also spiritually challenging to all readers. Cleaver weaves biblical reflections with historical, social, political, and personal commentary. He discusses personal identity issues and “coming out,” the development of class consciousness as members of the oppressed group and solidarity with other oppressed groups. This provocative book brings a new voice to the debate about the place of gays and lesbians in our churches.
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Welfare In America A Print On Demand Title
$53.99Add to cartThis is a print on demand book and is therefore non- returnable.
Between 1992 and 1995, the Center for Public Justice, a Christian civic-education and public-policy think tank undertook an extended project named the Welfare Responsibility Inquiry. In May 1994, the project hosted a conference in Washington, DC, on “Public Justice and Welfare Reform.” The project involved, at its center, a group of scholars who met periodically to discuss the issues involved. Those scholars then wrote the papers which are collected in Welfare in America.
“Welfare in America,” James Skillen writes, “argues that assistance to the needy does not, and should not, come primarily from government. Government, whether at federal or state levels, should help hold people accountable to their various institutional and personal responsibilities rather than fill in for every failure.” The range of topics addressed in Welfare in America is extensive. Though no reader will agree with everything here, those whose calling requires them to think through this issue with care will be wise to include Welfare in America in their list of books to be read.
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Reimagining God : The Case For Scriptural Diversity
$30.00Add to cartCan believers talk about God and to God in a way that is not exclusively male and is biblically responsible? Johanna van Wijk-Bos asks this question as she examines alternatives to the dominant male language associated with God in the Bible. Focusing primarily on the Hebrew Bible, van Wijk-Bos mines a rich source of God-imagery. Along the way, she also discusses alternative language associated with God that transcends the narrow confines of male/female imagery.
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God Beyond Gender
$24.00Add to cart144 Pages
Additional Info
God Beyond Gender is a feminist critique of the traditional language used for God and in the church. Can masculine pronouns for God be retained on the basis of bibical usage? Can Trinitarian language be gender inclusive? What should be the Christain understanding of the devine name of God (YHWH) in the Old Testament? What are the possibilities and what are the hazards of using human images (“judge,” “shepherd,” “father,” “mother,” “Sophia”) for God? Is all human language and possibly all human thought necessarily metaphorical? -
Morality And Beyond
$27.00Add to cartThis work confronts the age-old question of how the moral is related to the religious. In particular, Tillich addresses the conflict between reason-determined ethics and faith-determined ethics and shows that neither is dependent on the other but that each alone is inadequate. Instead, Tillich reveals to us the gift that came with the arrival of Christ: a new reality that offers a power of being in which we can participate and out of which true thought and right action are possible. Paul Tillich (1886-1965) taught at several German universities before emigrating to the United States. In the United States, Tillich taught at Union Theological Seminary in New York, Harvard Divinity School, and the Divinity School of the University of Chicago.
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Equal Rites : Lesbian And Gay Worship Ceremonies And Celebrations
$34.00Add to cartEqual Rites is a much-needed collection of worship services, ceremonies, and celebrations that is attuned to the unique needs of sexual minorities. The selections, written primarily by lesbians and gay men, include rites of spiritual beginnings, healing, blessings, holy communion, and pride and empowerment. Also included are funeral memorial services and seasonal and holiday rites for couples. More than a collection, Equal Rites can also serve as a reference book for creating unique and meaningful worship services that address significant aspects of lesbian and gay spirituality.
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Childs Song
$38.00Add to cartThis book is about reconciliation and the healing of the child self–“the mutilated soul”–that all adults carry within themselves. Using the biblical image of the Garden, the author draws from the same biblical tradition that has contributed to the physical and emotional abuse of children to envision and initiate the healing process.
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Homosexuality In The Church
$42.00Add to cartAdvisory: Some of the views put forth in this book challenge the traditionally accepted teachings on the issue of homosexuality and the Christian faith. Authorities on scripture, tradition, reason, biology ethics, and gendered experience discuss one of the most divisive debates in the church today; the place of homosexuals in the community of faith. Each perspective is explored by two writers-one more traditional, the other challenging tradition. This book will help to foster constructive dialogue, even reconciliation and healing, among people who stand in disagreement with one another, as well as those who are not sure what they think. The balanced treatment of the issues and the contrasting insights of the essays make this a valuable resource for reflection individually or in groups. Study questions at end of chapters and the statements on homosexuality of several Christian denominations.
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Ending Auschwitz : The Future Of Jewish And Christian Life
$32.00Add to cartThis book begins with Marc Ellis’s own journey to Auschwitz in 1992 and reflects back on his past, which includes his childhood experience as a Jew and his university years studying under Holocaust theologian Richard Rubenstein. Marc Ellis has taught and traveled among third-world peoples and has been outspoken on Middle Eastern issues. Based on this experience, Ellis has come to see that both Judaism and Christianity are locked in a static position. He shows that there is a continuity between the era of Christendom, exemplified by 1492, and Auschwitz and provides evidence to show that they are intimately linked. He sees the possibility of Jews and third-world Christians joining in a solidarity characterized by suffering and hope. He advocates what he calls “the ultimate religious act of contemporary Judaism and Christianity” to end Auschwitz and 1492 and to begin anew to create a world where all people can claim their own freedom and history.
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Vanishing Boundaries : The Religion Of Mainline Protestant Baby Boomers
$45.00Add to cartThis in-depth survey provides a vivid overview of the religious world of the Baby Boomers. The authors worked with a national sample of persons confirmed in the Presbyterian Church, examining the religious faith of the Baby Boomers and exploring the reasons they gave for leaving or staying in the church. The authors identify eight types of young adults-half of them churched and the other half unchurched. Their findings provide some unexpected results.
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Fall Of The Prison A Print On Demand Title
$29.99Add to cartEven as America’s prison system is expanding at an unprecedented rate, Lee Griffith makes a startling proposal in this book: abolish prisons. To make his case, Griffith thoroughly examines prisons from the perspectives of sociology, theology, history, and biblical exegesis. Bolstered with extensive documentation as well as lively anecdotal evidence, this compelling, radical book is bound to stir up serious discussion.
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Using Gods Resources Wisely
$17.00Add to cartNew and different readings of biblical texts are one consequence of a growing awareness of the environmental crisis and how it relates to social relations, especially in urban settings. Walter Brueggemann explores readings from Isaiah and how they relate to the environment and urban crisis. He approaches the readings as an artistic-theological history of the city of Jerusalem–a case study of urban environmental crisis that resulted from a lost sense of covenantal neighborliness. Reflecting on Jerusalem, its failure, demise, and prospect, Brueggemann uncovers some alarming parallels in today’s urban cities, and offers a demanding but hopeful challenge to faith.
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Beyond Charity : Reformation Initiatives For The Poor
$22.00Add to cartThe common stereotype is that the Reformers separate public and private morality and were indifferent to the ethical import of social structures and institutions. Beyond Charity calls this understanding into question by providing an analysis of the historical situation and translationof primary documents. The medieval point of view, formed by piety of achievement, idealized poverty — either as voluntary renunciation or as almsgiving. In either case the material effects on actual poverty were slight, and the religious endorsement of poverty precluded urban efforts to address this growing problem. The Reformers impelledby their theology, developed and passed new legislative structures for addressing social welfare needs. The key to their undertakings was the conviction that social ethics is the continuation of community worship. In the first half, this book sets forth the medieval context, details Luther’s critique of the profit economy of his day, and analyzes the actual social welfare programs that issued from his theology. The second half provides translations of selected legislative programs from the church orders of the Reformation.
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American Hour : A Time Of Reckoning And The Once And Future Role Of Faith
$28.95Add to cartAn internationally known writer and speaker on religion and public life brilliantly ananlyzes the causes of our current moral malaise. Guinness examines how perilously close we have come to losing the shared beliefs, traditions and ideals that have helped shape America and sets forth a compelling view of a new role for religion.
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Islam And War
$30.00Add to cartThis book explores questions regarding the justice of war and addresses the lack of comparative perspectives on the ethics of war, particularly with respect to Islam. John Kelsay begins with the war in the Persian Gulf, focusing on the role of Islamic symbols in the rhetoric of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. He provides an overview of the Islamic tradition in regards to war and peace, and then focuses on the notion of religion as a just cause for war.
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Depleted Self : Sin In A Narcissistic Age
$29.00Add to cartDon Capps challenges the church, its theologians, and its pastors to address seriously-and without moralism – the malaise that afflicts us, the mood of “wrongness” and incompleteness of self, of victimization, hunger, alienation, bitterness, the melancholic form that sin takes so prevailing in our day. This book is an effective example of the postive mirroring, more empathy, or acceptance, that Capps recommends as the means of empowering the depleted self.
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Bible And The Moral Life
$35.00Add to cartThe Bible helps to shape our understanding of Christian responsibility. However, different church bodies and individuals who claim scripture as an authority on ethics often reach different conclusions about moral life. In this book, C. Freeman Sleeper describes how the Bible can be used as a guide to moral life. He shows how various church bodies use the Bible to speak to specific contemporary ethical issues and deals directly with the question of the authority of the Bible by taking up the teaching of four basic styles of moral reflection–law, prophecy, apocalypse, and wisdom. Sleeper reviews the way that church bodies developed and used social policy and draws a distinction between the way churches speak to their own constituency and the way they speak to the world. He considers in detail the ethics of nuclear war and abortion. Practical exercises are also provided throughout the book.
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6 Billion And More
$40.00Add to cartSusan Power Bratton draws on information from demographers, economists, ecologists, and sociologists to argue that individuals should use Christian values when dealing with the regulation of human population. In this easy-to-read analysis, the author reviews a number of issues and provides case studies and discussion questions at the end of each chapter.
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Gospel Of Peace
$40.00Add to cartUlrich Mauser uses the Bible, especially the New Testament, as a guide for present-day peace efforts. He explores the meaning of peace, and throughout the book he interlaces the New Testament experience of peace with elements of the Old Testament idea of shalom, not overlooking the wars of Yahweh.
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Lines In The Sands
$34.00Add to cartBased on the debates of bishops, church councils, and scholars who reflected on policy alternatives and invoked theological and ethical perspectives on the Gulf crisis, Lines in the Sand focuses on moral issues surrounding the Persian Gulf War. Alan Geyer and Barbara Green present a penetrating case study of foreign policy, military policy, moral argument, and religious discourse, while arguing that the “just war” tradition offers only partial aid for Christian reflection in matters of war and peace.
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Christianity And The Social Crisis
$55.00Add to cartWalter Rauschenbusch was the primary architect of the Social Gospel, a movement that responded to the changing social and industrial conditions in the United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He presents, in this book, his path-breaking and prophetic interpretation of Jesus and the kingdom, and his understanding of troubling conditions that call the church to faithful witness and work toward meaningful political and economic reforms.
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Abuse Of Power
$27.99Add to cartChapter Titles Are:
1. Hearing The Silenced Voices
2. Power And Abuse Of Power
3. “Karen”: Survivor Of Sexual Violence
4. Stories Of Recovering Perpetrators
5. The Schreber Case: Methods Of Analysis
6. The Search For Self
7. The Search For Community
8. The Search For God
9. Ministry Practice And Practical TheologyAdditional Info
Pastoral care instruction and observation from a therapist of survivors of sexual abuse.“The Abuse of Power is ‘must’ reading for clergy and denominational officials…. Weaving case stories with theory, Poling demonstrates that sexual abuse of children is not a private matter, but very much a matter for society and church–a question of structure and ideology, not just of individual character. He is not afraid to tackle the tough question: Does the image of God sacrificing Jesus on the cross contribute to abusive parent-child relationships?…If pastors and church officials read this book the church will change.” –Karen Lebacqz, Pacific School of Religion
“For the exploitation of women and children to stop, men must be willing to break ranks with all forms of privilege that sanction male dominance. James Poling does so by deconstructing his own sense of male entitlement, by refusing to distance himself from perpetrators, by allowing survivors of sexual and domestic violence to speak with their own voices, by giving us profound words of hope, and by articulating a powerfully healing theology wrought through the depths of his own struggle with one of the worst evils in our society. His courageous and compassionate work reveals the love and hope that is born of solidarity across the boundaries of gender, sexual orientation, race, and economics….The psychological, political, spiritual, and theological power of this book is such that all educators, ministers, therapists, and Christians must read it.” –Rita Nakashima Brock, Hamline University
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Loving Nature : Ecological Integrity And Christian Responsibility
$31.99Add to cartThe ecological crisis is a serious challenge to Christian theology and ethics because the crisis is rooted partly in flawed convictions about the rights and powers of humankind in relation to the rest of the natural world. James A. Nash argues that Christianity can draw on a rich theological and ethical tradition with which to confront this challenge.
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Witness For Peace
$45.00Add to cartIn this graphic, thought-provoking book, Ed Griffin-Nolan depicts the experiences of Witness for Peace (WFP), a group of Americans who bore witness to the war in Nicaragua–an event that resulted in the killing and wounding of many innocent Central American civilians. Griffin-Nolan explains how WFP participants spent weeks in the war zones in order to understand the impact of U.S. policy on simple people living, as one member of the group phrased it, “at the end of a gun barrel.” He describes how WFP participants labored to bring stories of war back to the United States, and how many of them lost their jobs and even their marriages in the process. He concludes by showing that the efforts of WFP saved lives and possibly prevented “another Vietnam” from developing in Central America.
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Matters Of Life And Death
$30.00Add to cartUsing a bioethical approach, John Cobb Jr. tackles some of the most controversial issues facing society and the church today–something theologians have often failed to do in the past. His four major topics are animal well-being, death with dignity, the moral status of the fetus, and sexual activity outside of marriage.
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City Of God City Of Satan
$26.99Add to cartWhy is the city a battleground of hostile principalities and powers? What is the mission of the church in the city? How can the church be supported in accomplishing that mission? These are the questions that Robert Linthicum treats in his comprehensive and probing biblical theology of the city. In the Bible the city is depicted both as a dwelling place of God and his people and as a center of power for Satan and his minions. The city is one primary stage on which the drama of salvation is played out. And that is no less the case at the end of this pivotal century as megacities become the focal point of most human activity and aspirations around the world. This is a timely theology of the city that weaves the theological images of the Bible and the social realities of the contemporary world into a revealing tapestry of truths about the urban experience. Its purpose is to define clearly the mission of the church in the midst of the urban realities and to support well the work of the church in the urban world.
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Conflict At Rome
$22.00Add to cartUtilizing archeological evidence and an analysis of two early Christian texts related to the church at Rome, James S. Jeffers offers a penetrating glimpse into the economic, social, and theological tensions of early Roman Christianity. Clement and the Shepherd of Hermas are shown to represent two decidedly conflicting conceptions of Christianity and hierarchy: Clement represents the social elite and a more structured approach to church organization, and Hermas displays a tendency toward sectarianism. Photographs and line drawings illustrate archeological evidence.
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Social Ministry (Revised)
$45.00Add to cartThis work challenges pastors, seminarians, and active members of the laity to rethink the social character of their ministry. Dieter Hessel calls on parish communities to “meet human need with good Samaritan love while acting for justice with prophetic boldness.” In this updated edition, Hessel assesses major new developments that have occurred in both church and society since the first publication of Social Ministry. He gives special attention to the uncertainty that churches face today in regard to their public role.
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Good News To The Poor
$27.99Add to cartThis provocative volume illuminates a dimension of John Wesley’s theology that has received insufficient attention: his deep and abiding commitment to the poor. By focusing on the radical nature of Wesley’s “evangelical economics,” Theodore W. Jennings, Jr., provides an important corrective to the view that Wesley was concerned with the salvation of souls only, and not also with the social conditions of human beings.
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Church With Aids
$40.00Add to cartThis book looks at the experiences of people with AIDS as a means of examining the way Christianity views the problem and deals with it on both personal and community levels. This book begins by sharing the experience and ministry of those living with AIDS. Also presented is a series of theological reflections on what living with AIDS means for the renewal of the church. Russell also asks how the traditional church might be seen differently by those struggling with AIDS. The final section, is designed as a tool for study and discussion groups.
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Social Ethics : An Examination Of American Moral Traditions
$39.00Add to cartRodger Betsworth introduces ethics by focusing on the cultural narratives that shape American images of self and world: the biblical story American gospel of success, the idea of well-being, and the global mission of America.
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Keep It Simple
$18.95Add to cartThese daily meditations are for people in recovery who are either beginning a Twelve Step program or looking for renewal in the basic principles of recovery. Keep It Simple shows how prayer, meditation, and action can bring sobriety and peace to one’s life. Suggested daily activities help readers integrate these concepts into their daily lives. Keep It Simple presents the basics of recovery in terms that allow any reader the chance to enjoy the gifts of sobriety and serenity.
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Uncommon Calling : A Gay Christians Struggle To Serve The Church
$35.00Add to cartAdvisory: Some of the views put forth in this book challenge the traditionally accepted teachings on the issue of homosexuality and the Christian faith. Chris Glaser describes his personal journey of coming out to his family, friends, church-and to himself. He tells the story of how the shurch reacted to his disclosure reconciliation between the lesbian, gay, and bisexual community and the church.
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Justice In The Unjust World
$29.00Add to cartHave we heard the cry for justice that rises from humanity suffering from varieties of injustice: economic, sexual, political, cultural, verbal? Or, what is more, have Christians on occasion, knowingly or unknowingly, acquiesced in – or even contributed to – injustice?
By means of powerful and dramatic use of biblical images and models, Dr. Lebacqz sets before us the justice of God and God’s call for us to heed the cry of the suffering and to work for justice in an unjust world.
