Books by Burke Gerstenschlager
Declared dead in the 1990s, liberation theology is very much alive and well today across the glob... more Declared dead in the 1990s, liberation theology is very much alive and well today across the globe. This book brings together prominent voices from the global North and South to present brief analyses of liberation theology's future. It includes leaders in the field along with the newest voices. Each of these pieces was presented in the American Academy of Religion in the first five years of the Liberation Theologies Consultation. This book aims to reach a wider audience of undergraduates and graduates in religious studies and theology to provoke discussion of the future of liberation theology. As the consultation itself stated, the two themes of this book are: cross-over dialogue - between contexts and between disciplines; and reflection on the implications of liberationist discourse for the transformation of theology itself.
Radical Theologies series
In A Non-Philosophical Theory of Nature Anthony Paul Smith asserts t... more Radical Theologies series
In A Non-Philosophical Theory of Nature Anthony Paul Smith asserts that the old theological and philosophical ideas about the unnatural are no longer tenable. Parts of nature seem to be at war with one another - the human against the rest of the biosphere - and this is because our very understanding of the idea of nature that comes to us from philosophy and theology has perpetuated that war. Smith argues that the very idea of nature must be rethought as ecological, and towards that purpose uses the methodology of François Laruelle's non-philosophy to bring together the fields of philosophy, theology, and scientific ecology and treat them as ecological material. Out of this ecology of thought, a new theory of nature emerges for an ecological age.
'Ecology is often the object of overly simple and inadequate philosophies; the revision of our naturalist and philosophical concepts should, however, go together. This is the aim of Anthony Paul Smith's investigation which makes use of the 'non-philosophical' hypothesis so as to bring these new relations between nature and thought up to date. A great book that masterfully takes these problems head on, theology among them, and renews the analysis and significance of ecology.' - François Laruelle, Professor Emeritus, Contemporary Philosophy, University of Paris X: Ouest-Nanterre-La Défense, France
"The scientific study of nature is more complex than simple ecological epigrams would indicate; on the other hand, philosophy is more arduous than many scientists concede. Anthony Paul Smith inhabits both fields authentically and this important work shows the fruit of his interdisciplinary labors. We will be discussing the central theses of this pathfinding book for many decades.' - Liam Heneghan, Professor, Environmental Science, Co-Director, the Institute for Nature and Culture, DePaul University, USA
'In this highly-original book, Anthony Paul Smith sketches the contours of a new discipline: ecological thinking - not simply an ecological metaphysics but a metaphysics formed through thinking ecologically. Constructing a dialogue between Francois Laruelle, philosophical theology, and scientific ecology, he enables these ways of thinking to invade each other and cohabit together. Ground-breaking and timely, this book sets the cutting edge for contemporary thinking.' - Philip Goodchild, Professor, Religion and Philosophy, University of Nottingham, UK
New Approaches to Religion and Power Series
"Chong brings a new voice to the study of theology... more New Approaches to Religion and Power Series
"Chong brings a new voice to the study of theology and worship that is both fascinating and life-giving. Her years of service as a Christian pastor are evident in the clear and gentle nature of her book, which brings Asian beliefs and meal practices into dialogue with Christian traditions. Chong's understanding of Christianity takes into account real suffering, but offers an alternative to views that make a virtue of accepting victimization. Instead, she suggests understanding holy communion as a feast of thanksgiving and love." - Ruth Duck, Professor of Worship, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, USA
"This profound book advances Eucharist and Asian feminist theology, and serves as a new horizon of hope for those who have suffered. Chong poignantly portrays the broken Maum of women as a map of the world's stories and histories. According to Chong, Christ's broken Maum presents heals the shattered bodies of women through the Holy Communion." - Andrew Sung Park, author of The Wounded Heart of God
'The body of Christ, broken for you.' These are the words almost always shared whenever the communion bread is given. But what do these words mean for women whose bodies have been broken by injustice and violence? This book interweaves feminist theological ideas, Asian spiritual traditions, and the witnesses of comfort women - sex-slaves during World War II - to offer a new approach to a theology of body. It examines the multi-layered meaning of the broken body of Christ from Christological, sacramental, and ecclesiological perspectives, and explores the centrality of body in theological discourse.
New Approaches to Religion and Power Series
This book pursues the implications for linking Len... more New Approaches to Religion and Power Series
This book pursues the implications for linking Lenin with theology, which is not a project that has been undertaken thus far. What does this inveterate atheist known for describing religion as 'spiritual booze' (a gloss on Marx's 'opium of the people') have to do with theology? This book reveals far more than might initially be expected, so much so that Lenin and the Russian Revolution cannot be understood without this complex engagement with theology.
It also seeks to bring Lenin into recent debates over the intersections between theology and the Left, between the Bible and political thought. The key names involved in this debate are reasonably well-known, including Alain Badiou, Slavoj Žižek, Giorgio Agamben, Antonio Negri, Terry Eagleton, Ernst Bloch, Theodor Adorno, Louis Althusser, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. Boer has written concerning these critics, among others, in Boer's earlier five-volume Criticism of Heaven and Earth (Brill and Haymarket, 2007-13). Lenin and Theology builds upon this earlier project but it also stands alone as a substantial study in its own right. But it will be recognised as a contribution that follows a series that has, as critics have pointed out, played a major role in reviving and taking to a new level the debate over Marxism and religion.
The book is based upon a careful, detailed and critical reading of the whole 45 volumes of his Collected Works in English translation – 55 volumes in the Russian original. From that close attention to the texts, a number of key themes have emerged: the ambivalence over freedom of choice in matters of religion; his love of the sayings and parables of Jesus in the Gospels; his own love of constructing new parables; the extended and complex engagements with Christian socialists and 'God-builders' among the Bolsheviks; the importance of Hegel for his reassessments of religion; the arresting suggestion that a revolution is a miracle, which redefines the meaning of miracle; and the veneration of Lenin after his death.
For a millennium and a half, Christianity in China has been perceived as a foreign religion for a... more For a millennium and a half, Christianity in China has been perceived as a foreign religion for a foreign people. Yet in the last hundred years, various attempts to articulate a Chinese Christianity have been made by indigenous leaders like Watchman Nee, T. C. Chao and K. H. Ting. This book examines these and other historical approaches, and highlights their tendencies to draw from Western or Latin forms of Christian theology. Alexander Chow is sensitive to the ideological resources of China's past and present, and shows the potential role of Eastern Orthodox theology in today's development of an authentic Chinese contextual theology.
Can Christianity be accepted as the fourth wisdom tradition of China, alongside the three teachings of Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism, in their mixed, shared, and pre-conditioned engagement? Is there a contextual theology which embraces at its core the Chinese principle of 'Heaven and Humanity in Unity' (Tian ren heyi)? Is there a way to interpret theological recourses in a non-Christian context? At once spirited and intellectual, and simultaneously critical and historical, this book offers an encouraging voyage into a great space that has been left unexplored for too long.' - Yang Huilin, Vice President and Professor of Comparative Literature and Religious Studies, Renmin University of China
'Most studies of Christianity in China have been undertaken by historians or social scientists rather than by theologians. Alexander Chow's book is different. He brings twentieth-century Chinese Christian leaders such as Watchman Nee, T.C. Chao, and K.H. Ting into dialogue, not simply with the Western theological tradition, but crucially also with the writings of the Eastern Fathers and the Orthodox tradition. The result is a strikingly original work that will attract lively debate. No serious student of Chinese Christianity will be able to ignore it.' - Brian Stanley, Professor of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh, UK
'This monograph represents 'contextual' theology at its best: a deep investigation of some key concepts of salvation in the Chinese-Confucian culture vis-à-vis a critical and insightful assessment of Christian theological formulations in both lay and academic Chinese theologies. Alexander Chow gleans from the rich soteriological resources of the Christian East with its concept of theosis to propose a viable constructive theology of salvation for an Asian context. A must-read for both theologians and missiologists.' - Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Professor of Systematic Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA, USA, and Docent of Ecumenics, University of Helsinki, Finland
Jews and Gentiles in the Early Jesus Movement casts new light on Jewish-Gentile relations and the... more Jews and Gentiles in the Early Jesus Movement casts new light on Jewish-Gentile relations and the evolution of belief in the early Jesus movement. Abel Mordechai Bibliowicz suggests that the New Testament reflects the early stages of a Gentile challenge to the authority and to the legitimacy of the descendants of Jesus' disciples and first followers as the exclusive guardians and interpreters of his legacy.
With the passage of time and loss of context, the tensions and trauma produced by this crisis came to be understood by later believers as reflective of a Jewish-Christian conflict. Bibliowicz suggests that the New Testament texts do not reflect a struggle between 'Christians' and 'Jews' nor a conflict between 'Judaism' and 'Christianity' but rather a heated dispute about Judaism and about Torah observance among Jesus' early followers.
Muslim Ethiopia: The Christian Legacy, Identity Politics and Islamic Reformism is a pioneering co... more Muslim Ethiopia: The Christian Legacy, Identity Politics and Islamic Reformism is a pioneering collection of studies on Islam in contemporary Ethiopia. This volume challenges the popular notion of a 'Christian Ethiopia' imagined as the centuries-old, never-colonized Abyssinia, isolated in the highlands and dominated by Orthodox Christianity. In addition to marginalizing Muslim cultures and societies within Ethiopia, this notion has also excluded Muslims from public discourse and led to the neglect of Islam in Ethiopian studies. This is strikingly at odds with the country's cultural and historical reality, as Muslims constitute a significant part of the population and have contributed significantly to its development. Muslim Ethiopia develops this overlooked nexus of Ethiopian and Islamic Studies, while broadening our understandings of Muslims in Africa as a whole.
Born in 1844 in Persia (Iran), 'Abdu'l-Bahá is best known as the eldest son of Mírzá Ḥusayn-`Alí ... more Born in 1844 in Persia (Iran), 'Abdu'l-Bahá is best known as the eldest son of Mírzá Ḥusayn-`Alí Núrí, Bahá'u'lláh (1817-1892), the founder of the Bahá'í Faith. Negar Mottahedeh's edited volume of specially commissioned essays marking the centenary of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's journey to the West documents the uniqueness of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's vision of human solidarity and peace in the context of twentieth century modernity and shows the moral impact of his principled positions on the emergent Civil Rights movement in America.
Through examining Douglass's and Fanon's concrete experiences of oppression, Cynthia R. Nielsen d... more Through examining Douglass's and Fanon's concrete experiences of oppression, Cynthia R. Nielsen demonstrates the empirical validity of Foucault's theoretical analyses concerning power, resistance, and subject-formation. Going beyond merely confirming Foucault's insights, Douglass and Fanon expand, strengthen, and offer correctives to the emancipatory dimensions of Foucault's project. Unlike Foucault, Douglass and Fanon were not hesitant to make transhistorical judgments condemning slavery and colonization. Foucault's reticence here signals a weakness in his account of human being. This weakness sets him at cross-purposes not only with Scotus, but also with Douglass and Fanon. Scotus's anthropology provides a basis for transhistorical moral critique; thus he is a valuable dialogue partner for those concerned about social justice and human flourishing.
Modern Jewish debate about euthanasia regularly pivots on interpretations of the Talmudic story o... more Modern Jewish debate about euthanasia regularly pivots on interpretations of the Talmudic story of Rabbi Chananya ben Teryadon being burned alive by the Romans sometime in the second century. Though many modern bioethicists say this fiery story presents a clear and precise position on euthanasia, the narrative itself is more complicated and ambiguous. The implications of this disconnect between the story as it is and how bioethicists read it are problematic for patients, the Jewish textual tradition, and for modern bioethics as a whole. Applying fresh critical analysis to this tale, Jonathan Crane traces the fascinating and challenging story of narratives and norms in modern Jewish bioethics. The result is an unprecedented examination of the impact of a classic story in all its variants, and of narrative in general, on contemporary bioethical discourse.
Spirituality in Dark Places explores the spiritual consequences and ethics of modern solitary con... more Spirituality in Dark Places explores the spiritual consequences and ethics of modern solitary confinement. Jeffreys emphasizes how solitary confinement damages our spiritual lives, focusing particularly on how it destroys our relationship to time and undermines our creativity. Solitary inmates experience profound temporal dislocation that erodes their personal identities. They are often isolated from music, art, and books, or find their creativity tightly controlled. Informed by experiences with inmates, chaplains, and employees in the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, Jeffreys also evaluates the ethics of solitary confinement, considering but ultimately rejecting the argument that punitive isolation justifiably expresses moral outrage at heinous crimes. Finally, Jeffreys proposes changes in solitary confinement in order to mitigate its profound damage to both prisoners and human dignity at large.
"A powerful and thought-provoking meditation on the crushing effect of solitary confinement on human spirituality and creativity. Derek Jeffreys has written a brave and persuasive book that calls us to empathize and sympathize with those confined in these conditions, and in so doing to bring the mass isolation of prisoners to an end. This is an important and timely contribution to the current debate on the future of American penal policy and practice." - Sharon Shalev, Research Fellow, Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford, UK, and Author of Supermax: Controlling Risk Through Solitary Confinement (Willan, 2009)
Along with globalization migration poses unprecedented challenges to the Christian churches in th... more Along with globalization migration poses unprecedented challenges to the Christian churches in the fields of constructive theology, ethics, spirituality, mission, ministry, interreligious dialogue, and theological education. How can the Christian churches successfully meet these challenges posed by global migratory movements? In suggesting ways that help the churches fulfill this task, the essays in this volume draw from a variety of streams of thought, including liberationist, postmodern, and postcolonial theologies, and from a wide range of contexts, such as the U.S., Latin America, and Asia. They probe new ways of interpreting the Bible, the contributions of migrants to Christianity, the function of the city in religious developments, ways of being Christian, Christian mission, theological method, and theological education. The result is a theology of migration that is appropriate for the emerging World Christianity, as its approach is interdisciplinary, interdenominational, interreligious, and intercontinental.
The Scandal of White Complicity and U.S. Hyper-incarceration is a groundbreaking exploration of t... more The Scandal of White Complicity and U.S. Hyper-incarceration is a groundbreaking exploration of the moral role of white people in the disproportionate incarceration of African-Americans and Latinos in the United States. Alex Mikulich, Laurie Cassidy, and Margaret Pfeil are white Catholic theologians developing understanding of how whiteness operates in the U.S. system of incarceration and witnessing to a Christian nonviolent way for whites to subvert our oppression of brothers and sisters of color.
"This book fills a major lacuna in Roman Catholic moral and theological reflection. Through careful social and cultural analysis of US hyper-incarceration of African Americans and Latinos, the authors address the nation's historical and continuing enmeshment in racism with its reproduction of white privilege and cultural power. Crucially, they invite the reader beyond guilt or dismissal or blaming the victim to conversion of mind and heart, to contemplative action rooted in a spirituality that takes social responsibility seriously. Mikulich, Cassidy, and Pfeil challenge us to uncover and face the social consequences of our complicity in social sin." - M. Shawn Copeland, Associate Professor, Systematic Theology, Boston College, USA
"Provocative. Ground-breaking. Courageous. Hopeful. Seldom have Catholic ethicists been so searingly honest about the 'white way of being' and its deep entanglement with social evil. The authors boldly name and brilliantly expose the limits and silences of theological ethics in the face of racial complicity, and yet hopefully illuminate faith-based resources for personal and social transformation. This text is a model of authentic racial solidarity." - Bryan N. Massingale, Professor of Theological Ethics, Department of Theology, Marquette University, USA
"As millions of African American lives are quietly destroyed out of white sight and white mind, we need prophets like Alex Mikulich, Laurie Cassidy, and Margeret Pfeil to show us the full meaning of sin in 'Racist America,' and to summon us to conversion." - Jon Nilson, Professor, Department of Theology, Loyola University of Chicago, USA
"This volume exposes the truth about the participation of white cultural imagination in the dynamics of racism, while also offering communal practices of resistance like witness memory and lament in the peacemaking circle. An important intellectual and spiritual resource in the struggle to transform white privilege." - Mary Elizabeth Hobgood, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, College of the Holy Cross, USA
"The Scandal of White Complicity in US Hyper-incarceration represents the cutting edge in theological work on white racism. It takes an unflinching look at white complicity in a criminal justice system that incarcerates young people of color at rates far exceeding those of apartheid South Africa or Stalinist Russia. The book also examines how, as convicted felons, ex-prisoners face a future with severely narrowed economic opportunity and the loss of the fundamental right to vote. Especially insightful is the economic and cultural analysis of how the white music industry subverted the piercing social justice critique frequently heard in early hip hop music. Instead, hip hop was twisted to reflect a commercially successful 'gangsta' image that was just another historical variation on the racist stereotype of hyper-sexual, uncontrollably violent black men. This book offers clear insights into how the belief in shared human dignity, rooted in the creation of every human being as imago dei, requires that white Christians face up to the moral scandal of the hyper-incarceration of African Americans. This book challenges white Christians to oppose hyper-incarceration through a spiritualty and a strategy of non-violent resistance." - Barbara Hilkert Andolsen, Nancy and James Buckman Chair in Applied Ethics, Theology Department, Fordham University, USA
This collection brings together the work of some of the most prominent legal scholars and histori... more This collection brings together the work of some of the most prominent legal scholars and historians of Islam. The assembled articles cover a wide range of issues from debates over the Qur'anic text and issues of law to vibrant intellectual exchanges in philosophy and history. Taken together, these articles develop key inquiries surrounding Islamic law and tradition in unique ways. They also exemplify a critical development in the field of Islamic Studies over the last few decades: the proliferation of methodological approaches that employ a broad variety of sources to analyze social and political developments in classical Islam.
"An inspiring, innovative, and bold collection of first-rate studies on a wide array of topics in Islamic intellectual history, from Qur'an and Law, to tradition and history, to philosophy and ethics, and from medieval source analyses to contemporary reflections on Islam and human rights. This is an earnest work worthy of being a salute to Hossein Modarressi and his significant contributions to Islamic studies." - Wadad Kadi, The Avalon Foundation Distinguished Service Professor of Islamic Studies, the University of Chicago
"This volume represents an outstanding collection of closely argued and superbly documented papers on law, theology, and philosophy in medieval Islamic society. Rather than rehashing thrice-familiar debates, the authors focus on new or little-noticed problems. In so doing, they open up fresh perspectives on the complex intellectual world fashioned by Shi'ite, Sunni, Christian, and Jewish scholars. Altogether, a fitting tribute to the career of Prof. Modarressi." - R. Stephen Humphreys, Research Professor in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
"Straddling generations of some of the most accomplished scholars, and venturing into some of the most interesting crooks and crannies of scholarship, this work is a fine and valuable contribution to Islamic Studies, certain to contribute handsomely to the field." - Sherman Jackson, King Faisal Chair in Islamic Thought and Culture and Professor of Religion and American Studies and Ethnicity, University of Southern California
"A dazzling display of scholarship. This diverse and engaging set of studies will benefit anyone interested in the history of Islamic thought." - Marion Katz, associate professor, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, New York University
"A wonderful array of essays from an impressive list of contributors, including several promising young scholars as well as many well-established authorities, Law and Tradition in Classical Islamic Thought bears testimony to Professor Modarressi's dedicated teaching and collegiate generosity over many years and in different academic institutions. The very range of the topics, from source studies to legal and historical traditions, is a tribute to a scholar with a formidable understanding of history in its widest sense." - Mohsen Ashtiany, Center for Iranian Studies, Columbia University
Various goddesses of the ancient Mediterranean world were once understood to be Virgin Mothers - ... more Various goddesses of the ancient Mediterranean world were once understood to be Virgin Mothers - creators who birthed the entire cosmos without need of a male consort. This is the first book to explore evidence of the original parthenogenetic power of deities such as Athena, Hera, Artemis, Gaia, Demeter, Persephone, and the Gnostic Sophia. It provides stunning feminist insights about the deeper meaning of related stories, such as the judgment of Paris, the labors of Heracles, and the exploits of the Amazons. It also roots the Thesmophoria and Eleusinian Mysteries in female parthenogenetic power, thereby providing what is at long last a coherent understanding of these mysterious rites.
"Rigoglioso explores the power of virgin birth, or parthenogenesis, as the primal creative process. The clarity of her analysis reveals how pervasive and influential this motif and its rites were in the ancient world. Most interesting is her remarkable explication of the Eleusinian Mysteries, where - by her application of the ‘missing piece’ of virgin birth - she makes sense of much that has been passed over or ignored in the ancient texts. This is an original piece of scholarship that dares to imagine traditions at the foundation of Western culture in an entirely new light. As with any paradigm-shifting theory, some may challenge Rigoglioso’s interpretations, but all readers will recognize that parthenogenesis, as a symbol of profound spiritual perception, could not have received a more articulate spokesperson. One feels in reading her work that she is writing from inside a tradition that we didn’t even know existed, and the authenticity of her writing makes it all the more accessible and inviting." - Gregory Shaw, Professor of Religious Studies, Stonehill College and author of Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus
"With this study, Rigoglioso has substantively corrected the common perception that ‘a few’ of the Greek goddesses have an inconsequential association with parthenogenesis. Her insightful explication of the parthenogenetic motif in the attributes of all the pre-Greek goddesses, as well as in the Thesmophoria and the Eleusinian Mysteries, establishes the generative powers of the Virgin Mother goddesses as a central dynamic in the pre-Greek substratum of Western religion." - Charlene Spretnak, author of Lost Goddesses of Early Greece
For 50 years Thomas J.J. Altizer has been at the forefront of public and academic debate in theol... more For 50 years Thomas J.J. Altizer has been at the forefront of public and academic debate in theology and the philosophy of religion. The central figure of the so-called 'death of god' debate of the 1960s, Altizer has continued to write on the issues and conditions for theology in modernity, and to influence new generations of students, scholars and readers worldwide, arguing for a Christian atheism that challenges institutional, orthodox Christianity to its core. In this latest, audacious book, Altizer demands nothing less than a radical rethinking of the theology of the Trinity, forcing into question both the residual liberal piety and the conservative faith that still undergird so much of religious studies and theology. Yet this volume is at the same time a work that returns the Trinity to centrality within Christian theology and existence. The Apocalyptic Trinity seeks to call forth a uniquely Christian Godhead that embodies absolute apocalypse—that very apocalypse originally enacted by Jesus as apocalyptic prophet.
"Having followed Altizer's theology since the late 1970s, I can confidently state that The Apocalyptic Trinity ranks among his very best in terms of erudition, insight, and imagination. This extraordinary work is not only the culmination of his original apocalyptic theology; it also firmly situates his position in the historical trajectory of dogmatic theology. As Altizer makes patently clear, the doctrine of the Trinity is not a biblical teaching, but represents instead a strain of dogmatic ecclesiastical theology at its most abstract and mysterious level. Altizer does not offer an apology for the Trinity; rather, he historically situates and trenchantly critiques this deepest and, as he persuasively argues, most dangerous of dogmas." –- Brian Schroeder, Professor of Philosophy and Director of Religious Studies, Rochester Institute of Technology
In the past 20 years, a new paradigm has emerged around the study of festive dining as a seminal ... more In the past 20 years, a new paradigm has emerged around the study of festive dining as a seminal social practice that functioned as the matrix for the social formation of a variety of groups in the Greco-Roman world, including earliest Christianity and pre-Rabbinic Judaism. Most recently, an international team of scholars, organized as the Society of Biblical Literature Seminar on Meals in the Greco-Roman World, has developed this paradigm in a series of groundbreaking studies. This volume provides a collection of those studies in four areas of focus: The Typology of the Greco-Roman Banquet; The Archeology of the Banquet; Who Was at the Greco-Roman Banquets?; and The Culture of Reclining. Together they establish festive meals as an essential lens into social formation in the Greco-Roman world.
"In the beginning was the meal - the most basic and pervasive of social formations in the ancient world. These studies take us into this intimate world to discover its customs, its culture, and its power to create community among companions. A critical contribution to the study of antiquity and the social world of early Christianity." - Stephen J. Patterson, Atkinson Professor of Religious Studies, Willamette University
"Meals in the Early Christian World is a splendid collection that engages the essential issues for understanding banqueting practices in the ancient world: the structure and social functions of the meal; materiality and the physical aspects of dining; the ideals of social 'equality' and the realities of hierarchical arrangement and servitude; and the semiotics of 'reclining'. Resisting the temptation to fragment dining practices into 'Jewish,' 'Greek' and 'Roman' meals, this volume makes a compelling case for seeing dining practices as a common and unifying feature of ancient Mediterranean culture." - John S. Kloppenborg, Professor and Chair, Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto
"Dennis E. Smith and Hal Taussig, long known for groundbreaking work on the study of meals in the ancient world and early Christianity, provide in this collection of essays another fine contribution that will move the study of the Greco-Roman banquets into the future. By studying the typology, the archaeology, the participants, and the culture of these banquets, Meals in the Early Christian World moves forward the scholarship of the social settings of the banquets in dialogue with the pioneering works of Smith and Klinghardt, further broadening the shift their studies have championed." - Reimund Bieringer, Professor of New Testament Exegesis, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium
This major work offers a historical description and systematic analysis of the root causes of thi... more This major work offers a historical description and systematic analysis of the root causes of this global economic crisis, which the authors understand as a crisis of western civilization. Secondly, they assume (and prove) that the religions of the Axial Age were shaped by the suffering of people, deepened by the emergence of a new economy – based on money, private property and interest. They assume that the proven convergence of the Axial Age religions in responding to the social, psychological (and already ecological) consequences of the new economy can inform, motivate and empower faith communities and their members to join hands with social movements towards a new personal and collective culture of life. In part I they show the linkage between the contexts of antiquity and modernity concerning the role of money, private property and the related structures and mentalities of greed, producing suffering, and psychological, social and ecological destruction. They show how the religions of the Axial Age responded to this context in similar ways but with interesting specific emphases. In relation to today's situation we also raise the question of psychological hindrances to change in the different social classes, affected by neoliberalism, and how to overcome them. Before drawing the conclusions for present-day alliance-building between faith communities and social movements for alternatives to neoliberal globalization in Part III they offer a fundamental critique of the ambivalence of modernity in Part II.
"Ulrich Duchrow and Franz Hinkelammert's Transcending Greedy Money is a timely, pertinent and brilliant analysis and critique of modernity and western civilization. The current economic crisis and the consistent and continuing impoverization of people requires a courageous and alternative strategy to combat global greed and neoliberalism which produces suffering, loss, and exclusion. Duchrow and Hinkelammert chart a way forward by casting a critical eye on the modern economic system based on money, private property, and interest, and persuasively argue that religion can be a proactive impetus and liberatory mechanism for social movements and faith communities to forge a new future outside the shadow of neoliberal economics. This volume is indispensable reading for anyone concerned about socio-economic equality in a world dominated by profit and greed." - Farid Esack, Professor and Head, Department of Religion Studies, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
"Transcending Greedy Money: Interreligious Solidarity for Just Relations is a brilliant challenge to the materialism and selfishness that have accompanied the triumph of capitalist values in many contemporary religious traditions. Duchrow and Hinkelammert confront the misuse of the Bible to condone acts of injustice and destructive violence, the spread of the property-money-interest economy, coupled with imperial political structures, leading to increased material and psycho-spiritual suffering in advanced capitalist societies, and show how these very conditions are leading to new and potentially revolutionary developments that may bring us closer to the world both religious and secular people yearn for and spiritual progressives fight for! Challenging the spiritual void in leftist thinking, this book is indispensable for any religious or spiritual person who wants to see the world healed and transformed." - Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun Magazine www.tikkun.org, chair of The Network of Spiritual Progressives, and author of 11 books, most recently Embracing Israel/Palestine
"With diverse Biblical, Buddhist, and Islamic perspectives, Duchrow and Hinkelammert critique modernity (without falling into postmodernism) to build a radical new paradigm of collective human life on the planet." - François Houtart, professor emeritus, Catholic University of Louvain UCL, founder and advisor, CETRI ( Centre Tricontinental, a Belgian non-governmental organization), co-founder, World Social Forum, Fundación Pueblo Indio del Ecuador
This volume investigates how social change has played out in the social and political history of ... more This volume investigates how social change has played out in the social and political history of the ancient society that is now contemporary Ethiopia. Mohammed Girma reveals why abrupt political change with no anchor in grassroots sensibility has not suited the native religious value-laden system, and calls instead for the continuity of certain elements of traditional values. Understanding Religion and Social Change in Ethiopia deftly utilizes the idea of 'covenant' thinking in negotiating a new vision of social change without sacrificing cultural identity.
"This book is a wide-angled and original analysis of the past, present and future of Ethiopian society and politics, achieving what much secular social science still thinks cannot or should not be attempted. It effectively deploys a profoundly religious notion, that of 'covenant', both as an explanatory device to illuminate one of the most powerful, but often neglected, drivers of Ethiopian history and culture and as a fruitful normative resource to guide it into a more just and peaceful future." - Jonathan Chaplin, Director, the Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics, Cambridge, and Co-editor of God and Global Order: The Power of Religion in American Foreign Policy (Baylor University Press, 2010)
"Writing into the tensions of cultural dynamism in a globalizing world, Mohammed Girma makes an important contribution to religious studies and political theory by exploring resources for Ethiopians to interpret and negotiate social change." - Willis Jenkins, Margaret Farley Associate Professor of Social Ethics, Yale Divinity School
Constructing Solidarity for a Liberative Ethic offers a critical path for all readers toward the ... more Constructing Solidarity for a Liberative Ethic offers a critical path for all readers toward the transformation of white worldviews, theologies, ethics, and praxis. Specific guidance is directed towards white readers on working as allies in solidarity with those seeking to dismantle unjust systems; on seeking our own liberation from the oppressive aspects of whiteness; and on working toward more abundant lives for all. Scholars, activists and religious leaders of color will find a collaborative path to which they can invite colleagues and students, a path leading to concrete, productive change.
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Books by Burke Gerstenschlager
In A Non-Philosophical Theory of Nature Anthony Paul Smith asserts that the old theological and philosophical ideas about the unnatural are no longer tenable. Parts of nature seem to be at war with one another - the human against the rest of the biosphere - and this is because our very understanding of the idea of nature that comes to us from philosophy and theology has perpetuated that war. Smith argues that the very idea of nature must be rethought as ecological, and towards that purpose uses the methodology of François Laruelle's non-philosophy to bring together the fields of philosophy, theology, and scientific ecology and treat them as ecological material. Out of this ecology of thought, a new theory of nature emerges for an ecological age.
'Ecology is often the object of overly simple and inadequate philosophies; the revision of our naturalist and philosophical concepts should, however, go together. This is the aim of Anthony Paul Smith's investigation which makes use of the 'non-philosophical' hypothesis so as to bring these new relations between nature and thought up to date. A great book that masterfully takes these problems head on, theology among them, and renews the analysis and significance of ecology.' - François Laruelle, Professor Emeritus, Contemporary Philosophy, University of Paris X: Ouest-Nanterre-La Défense, France
"The scientific study of nature is more complex than simple ecological epigrams would indicate; on the other hand, philosophy is more arduous than many scientists concede. Anthony Paul Smith inhabits both fields authentically and this important work shows the fruit of his interdisciplinary labors. We will be discussing the central theses of this pathfinding book for many decades.' - Liam Heneghan, Professor, Environmental Science, Co-Director, the Institute for Nature and Culture, DePaul University, USA
'In this highly-original book, Anthony Paul Smith sketches the contours of a new discipline: ecological thinking - not simply an ecological metaphysics but a metaphysics formed through thinking ecologically. Constructing a dialogue between Francois Laruelle, philosophical theology, and scientific ecology, he enables these ways of thinking to invade each other and cohabit together. Ground-breaking and timely, this book sets the cutting edge for contemporary thinking.' - Philip Goodchild, Professor, Religion and Philosophy, University of Nottingham, UK
"Chong brings a new voice to the study of theology and worship that is both fascinating and life-giving. Her years of service as a Christian pastor are evident in the clear and gentle nature of her book, which brings Asian beliefs and meal practices into dialogue with Christian traditions. Chong's understanding of Christianity takes into account real suffering, but offers an alternative to views that make a virtue of accepting victimization. Instead, she suggests understanding holy communion as a feast of thanksgiving and love." - Ruth Duck, Professor of Worship, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, USA
"This profound book advances Eucharist and Asian feminist theology, and serves as a new horizon of hope for those who have suffered. Chong poignantly portrays the broken Maum of women as a map of the world's stories and histories. According to Chong, Christ's broken Maum presents heals the shattered bodies of women through the Holy Communion." - Andrew Sung Park, author of The Wounded Heart of God
'The body of Christ, broken for you.' These are the words almost always shared whenever the communion bread is given. But what do these words mean for women whose bodies have been broken by injustice and violence? This book interweaves feminist theological ideas, Asian spiritual traditions, and the witnesses of comfort women - sex-slaves during World War II - to offer a new approach to a theology of body. It examines the multi-layered meaning of the broken body of Christ from Christological, sacramental, and ecclesiological perspectives, and explores the centrality of body in theological discourse.
This book pursues the implications for linking Lenin with theology, which is not a project that has been undertaken thus far. What does this inveterate atheist known for describing religion as 'spiritual booze' (a gloss on Marx's 'opium of the people') have to do with theology? This book reveals far more than might initially be expected, so much so that Lenin and the Russian Revolution cannot be understood without this complex engagement with theology.
It also seeks to bring Lenin into recent debates over the intersections between theology and the Left, between the Bible and political thought. The key names involved in this debate are reasonably well-known, including Alain Badiou, Slavoj Žižek, Giorgio Agamben, Antonio Negri, Terry Eagleton, Ernst Bloch, Theodor Adorno, Louis Althusser, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. Boer has written concerning these critics, among others, in Boer's earlier five-volume Criticism of Heaven and Earth (Brill and Haymarket, 2007-13). Lenin and Theology builds upon this earlier project but it also stands alone as a substantial study in its own right. But it will be recognised as a contribution that follows a series that has, as critics have pointed out, played a major role in reviving and taking to a new level the debate over Marxism and religion.
The book is based upon a careful, detailed and critical reading of the whole 45 volumes of his Collected Works in English translation – 55 volumes in the Russian original. From that close attention to the texts, a number of key themes have emerged: the ambivalence over freedom of choice in matters of religion; his love of the sayings and parables of Jesus in the Gospels; his own love of constructing new parables; the extended and complex engagements with Christian socialists and 'God-builders' among the Bolsheviks; the importance of Hegel for his reassessments of religion; the arresting suggestion that a revolution is a miracle, which redefines the meaning of miracle; and the veneration of Lenin after his death.
Can Christianity be accepted as the fourth wisdom tradition of China, alongside the three teachings of Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism, in their mixed, shared, and pre-conditioned engagement? Is there a contextual theology which embraces at its core the Chinese principle of 'Heaven and Humanity in Unity' (Tian ren heyi)? Is there a way to interpret theological recourses in a non-Christian context? At once spirited and intellectual, and simultaneously critical and historical, this book offers an encouraging voyage into a great space that has been left unexplored for too long.' - Yang Huilin, Vice President and Professor of Comparative Literature and Religious Studies, Renmin University of China
'Most studies of Christianity in China have been undertaken by historians or social scientists rather than by theologians. Alexander Chow's book is different. He brings twentieth-century Chinese Christian leaders such as Watchman Nee, T.C. Chao, and K.H. Ting into dialogue, not simply with the Western theological tradition, but crucially also with the writings of the Eastern Fathers and the Orthodox tradition. The result is a strikingly original work that will attract lively debate. No serious student of Chinese Christianity will be able to ignore it.' - Brian Stanley, Professor of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh, UK
'This monograph represents 'contextual' theology at its best: a deep investigation of some key concepts of salvation in the Chinese-Confucian culture vis-à-vis a critical and insightful assessment of Christian theological formulations in both lay and academic Chinese theologies. Alexander Chow gleans from the rich soteriological resources of the Christian East with its concept of theosis to propose a viable constructive theology of salvation for an Asian context. A must-read for both theologians and missiologists.' - Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Professor of Systematic Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA, USA, and Docent of Ecumenics, University of Helsinki, Finland
With the passage of time and loss of context, the tensions and trauma produced by this crisis came to be understood by later believers as reflective of a Jewish-Christian conflict. Bibliowicz suggests that the New Testament texts do not reflect a struggle between 'Christians' and 'Jews' nor a conflict between 'Judaism' and 'Christianity' but rather a heated dispute about Judaism and about Torah observance among Jesus' early followers.
"A powerful and thought-provoking meditation on the crushing effect of solitary confinement on human spirituality and creativity. Derek Jeffreys has written a brave and persuasive book that calls us to empathize and sympathize with those confined in these conditions, and in so doing to bring the mass isolation of prisoners to an end. This is an important and timely contribution to the current debate on the future of American penal policy and practice." - Sharon Shalev, Research Fellow, Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford, UK, and Author of Supermax: Controlling Risk Through Solitary Confinement (Willan, 2009)
"This book fills a major lacuna in Roman Catholic moral and theological reflection. Through careful social and cultural analysis of US hyper-incarceration of African Americans and Latinos, the authors address the nation's historical and continuing enmeshment in racism with its reproduction of white privilege and cultural power. Crucially, they invite the reader beyond guilt or dismissal or blaming the victim to conversion of mind and heart, to contemplative action rooted in a spirituality that takes social responsibility seriously. Mikulich, Cassidy, and Pfeil challenge us to uncover and face the social consequences of our complicity in social sin." - M. Shawn Copeland, Associate Professor, Systematic Theology, Boston College, USA
"Provocative. Ground-breaking. Courageous. Hopeful. Seldom have Catholic ethicists been so searingly honest about the 'white way of being' and its deep entanglement with social evil. The authors boldly name and brilliantly expose the limits and silences of theological ethics in the face of racial complicity, and yet hopefully illuminate faith-based resources for personal and social transformation. This text is a model of authentic racial solidarity." - Bryan N. Massingale, Professor of Theological Ethics, Department of Theology, Marquette University, USA
"As millions of African American lives are quietly destroyed out of white sight and white mind, we need prophets like Alex Mikulich, Laurie Cassidy, and Margeret Pfeil to show us the full meaning of sin in 'Racist America,' and to summon us to conversion." - Jon Nilson, Professor, Department of Theology, Loyola University of Chicago, USA
"This volume exposes the truth about the participation of white cultural imagination in the dynamics of racism, while also offering communal practices of resistance like witness memory and lament in the peacemaking circle. An important intellectual and spiritual resource in the struggle to transform white privilege." - Mary Elizabeth Hobgood, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, College of the Holy Cross, USA
"The Scandal of White Complicity in US Hyper-incarceration represents the cutting edge in theological work on white racism. It takes an unflinching look at white complicity in a criminal justice system that incarcerates young people of color at rates far exceeding those of apartheid South Africa or Stalinist Russia. The book also examines how, as convicted felons, ex-prisoners face a future with severely narrowed economic opportunity and the loss of the fundamental right to vote. Especially insightful is the economic and cultural analysis of how the white music industry subverted the piercing social justice critique frequently heard in early hip hop music. Instead, hip hop was twisted to reflect a commercially successful 'gangsta' image that was just another historical variation on the racist stereotype of hyper-sexual, uncontrollably violent black men. This book offers clear insights into how the belief in shared human dignity, rooted in the creation of every human being as imago dei, requires that white Christians face up to the moral scandal of the hyper-incarceration of African Americans. This book challenges white Christians to oppose hyper-incarceration through a spiritualty and a strategy of non-violent resistance." - Barbara Hilkert Andolsen, Nancy and James Buckman Chair in Applied Ethics, Theology Department, Fordham University, USA
"An inspiring, innovative, and bold collection of first-rate studies on a wide array of topics in Islamic intellectual history, from Qur'an and Law, to tradition and history, to philosophy and ethics, and from medieval source analyses to contemporary reflections on Islam and human rights. This is an earnest work worthy of being a salute to Hossein Modarressi and his significant contributions to Islamic studies." - Wadad Kadi, The Avalon Foundation Distinguished Service Professor of Islamic Studies, the University of Chicago
"This volume represents an outstanding collection of closely argued and superbly documented papers on law, theology, and philosophy in medieval Islamic society. Rather than rehashing thrice-familiar debates, the authors focus on new or little-noticed problems. In so doing, they open up fresh perspectives on the complex intellectual world fashioned by Shi'ite, Sunni, Christian, and Jewish scholars. Altogether, a fitting tribute to the career of Prof. Modarressi." - R. Stephen Humphreys, Research Professor in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
"Straddling generations of some of the most accomplished scholars, and venturing into some of the most interesting crooks and crannies of scholarship, this work is a fine and valuable contribution to Islamic Studies, certain to contribute handsomely to the field." - Sherman Jackson, King Faisal Chair in Islamic Thought and Culture and Professor of Religion and American Studies and Ethnicity, University of Southern California
"A dazzling display of scholarship. This diverse and engaging set of studies will benefit anyone interested in the history of Islamic thought." - Marion Katz, associate professor, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, New York University
"A wonderful array of essays from an impressive list of contributors, including several promising young scholars as well as many well-established authorities, Law and Tradition in Classical Islamic Thought bears testimony to Professor Modarressi's dedicated teaching and collegiate generosity over many years and in different academic institutions. The very range of the topics, from source studies to legal and historical traditions, is a tribute to a scholar with a formidable understanding of history in its widest sense." - Mohsen Ashtiany, Center for Iranian Studies, Columbia University
"Rigoglioso explores the power of virgin birth, or parthenogenesis, as the primal creative process. The clarity of her analysis reveals how pervasive and influential this motif and its rites were in the ancient world. Most interesting is her remarkable explication of the Eleusinian Mysteries, where - by her application of the ‘missing piece’ of virgin birth - she makes sense of much that has been passed over or ignored in the ancient texts. This is an original piece of scholarship that dares to imagine traditions at the foundation of Western culture in an entirely new light. As with any paradigm-shifting theory, some may challenge Rigoglioso’s interpretations, but all readers will recognize that parthenogenesis, as a symbol of profound spiritual perception, could not have received a more articulate spokesperson. One feels in reading her work that she is writing from inside a tradition that we didn’t even know existed, and the authenticity of her writing makes it all the more accessible and inviting." - Gregory Shaw, Professor of Religious Studies, Stonehill College and author of Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus
"With this study, Rigoglioso has substantively corrected the common perception that ‘a few’ of the Greek goddesses have an inconsequential association with parthenogenesis. Her insightful explication of the parthenogenetic motif in the attributes of all the pre-Greek goddesses, as well as in the Thesmophoria and the Eleusinian Mysteries, establishes the generative powers of the Virgin Mother goddesses as a central dynamic in the pre-Greek substratum of Western religion." - Charlene Spretnak, author of Lost Goddesses of Early Greece
"Having followed Altizer's theology since the late 1970s, I can confidently state that The Apocalyptic Trinity ranks among his very best in terms of erudition, insight, and imagination. This extraordinary work is not only the culmination of his original apocalyptic theology; it also firmly situates his position in the historical trajectory of dogmatic theology. As Altizer makes patently clear, the doctrine of the Trinity is not a biblical teaching, but represents instead a strain of dogmatic ecclesiastical theology at its most abstract and mysterious level. Altizer does not offer an apology for the Trinity; rather, he historically situates and trenchantly critiques this deepest and, as he persuasively argues, most dangerous of dogmas." –- Brian Schroeder, Professor of Philosophy and Director of Religious Studies, Rochester Institute of Technology
"In the beginning was the meal - the most basic and pervasive of social formations in the ancient world. These studies take us into this intimate world to discover its customs, its culture, and its power to create community among companions. A critical contribution to the study of antiquity and the social world of early Christianity." - Stephen J. Patterson, Atkinson Professor of Religious Studies, Willamette University
"Meals in the Early Christian World is a splendid collection that engages the essential issues for understanding banqueting practices in the ancient world: the structure and social functions of the meal; materiality and the physical aspects of dining; the ideals of social 'equality' and the realities of hierarchical arrangement and servitude; and the semiotics of 'reclining'. Resisting the temptation to fragment dining practices into 'Jewish,' 'Greek' and 'Roman' meals, this volume makes a compelling case for seeing dining practices as a common and unifying feature of ancient Mediterranean culture." - John S. Kloppenborg, Professor and Chair, Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto
"Dennis E. Smith and Hal Taussig, long known for groundbreaking work on the study of meals in the ancient world and early Christianity, provide in this collection of essays another fine contribution that will move the study of the Greco-Roman banquets into the future. By studying the typology, the archaeology, the participants, and the culture of these banquets, Meals in the Early Christian World moves forward the scholarship of the social settings of the banquets in dialogue with the pioneering works of Smith and Klinghardt, further broadening the shift their studies have championed." - Reimund Bieringer, Professor of New Testament Exegesis, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium
"Ulrich Duchrow and Franz Hinkelammert's Transcending Greedy Money is a timely, pertinent and brilliant analysis and critique of modernity and western civilization. The current economic crisis and the consistent and continuing impoverization of people requires a courageous and alternative strategy to combat global greed and neoliberalism which produces suffering, loss, and exclusion. Duchrow and Hinkelammert chart a way forward by casting a critical eye on the modern economic system based on money, private property, and interest, and persuasively argue that religion can be a proactive impetus and liberatory mechanism for social movements and faith communities to forge a new future outside the shadow of neoliberal economics. This volume is indispensable reading for anyone concerned about socio-economic equality in a world dominated by profit and greed." - Farid Esack, Professor and Head, Department of Religion Studies, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
"Transcending Greedy Money: Interreligious Solidarity for Just Relations is a brilliant challenge to the materialism and selfishness that have accompanied the triumph of capitalist values in many contemporary religious traditions. Duchrow and Hinkelammert confront the misuse of the Bible to condone acts of injustice and destructive violence, the spread of the property-money-interest economy, coupled with imperial political structures, leading to increased material and psycho-spiritual suffering in advanced capitalist societies, and show how these very conditions are leading to new and potentially revolutionary developments that may bring us closer to the world both religious and secular people yearn for and spiritual progressives fight for! Challenging the spiritual void in leftist thinking, this book is indispensable for any religious or spiritual person who wants to see the world healed and transformed." - Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun Magazine www.tikkun.org, chair of The Network of Spiritual Progressives, and author of 11 books, most recently Embracing Israel/Palestine
"With diverse Biblical, Buddhist, and Islamic perspectives, Duchrow and Hinkelammert critique modernity (without falling into postmodernism) to build a radical new paradigm of collective human life on the planet." - François Houtart, professor emeritus, Catholic University of Louvain UCL, founder and advisor, CETRI ( Centre Tricontinental, a Belgian non-governmental organization), co-founder, World Social Forum, Fundación Pueblo Indio del Ecuador
"This book is a wide-angled and original analysis of the past, present and future of Ethiopian society and politics, achieving what much secular social science still thinks cannot or should not be attempted. It effectively deploys a profoundly religious notion, that of 'covenant', both as an explanatory device to illuminate one of the most powerful, but often neglected, drivers of Ethiopian history and culture and as a fruitful normative resource to guide it into a more just and peaceful future." - Jonathan Chaplin, Director, the Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics, Cambridge, and Co-editor of God and Global Order: The Power of Religion in American Foreign Policy (Baylor University Press, 2010)
"Writing into the tensions of cultural dynamism in a globalizing world, Mohammed Girma makes an important contribution to religious studies and political theory by exploring resources for Ethiopians to interpret and negotiate social change." - Willis Jenkins, Margaret Farley Associate Professor of Social Ethics, Yale Divinity School
In A Non-Philosophical Theory of Nature Anthony Paul Smith asserts that the old theological and philosophical ideas about the unnatural are no longer tenable. Parts of nature seem to be at war with one another - the human against the rest of the biosphere - and this is because our very understanding of the idea of nature that comes to us from philosophy and theology has perpetuated that war. Smith argues that the very idea of nature must be rethought as ecological, and towards that purpose uses the methodology of François Laruelle's non-philosophy to bring together the fields of philosophy, theology, and scientific ecology and treat them as ecological material. Out of this ecology of thought, a new theory of nature emerges for an ecological age.
'Ecology is often the object of overly simple and inadequate philosophies; the revision of our naturalist and philosophical concepts should, however, go together. This is the aim of Anthony Paul Smith's investigation which makes use of the 'non-philosophical' hypothesis so as to bring these new relations between nature and thought up to date. A great book that masterfully takes these problems head on, theology among them, and renews the analysis and significance of ecology.' - François Laruelle, Professor Emeritus, Contemporary Philosophy, University of Paris X: Ouest-Nanterre-La Défense, France
"The scientific study of nature is more complex than simple ecological epigrams would indicate; on the other hand, philosophy is more arduous than many scientists concede. Anthony Paul Smith inhabits both fields authentically and this important work shows the fruit of his interdisciplinary labors. We will be discussing the central theses of this pathfinding book for many decades.' - Liam Heneghan, Professor, Environmental Science, Co-Director, the Institute for Nature and Culture, DePaul University, USA
'In this highly-original book, Anthony Paul Smith sketches the contours of a new discipline: ecological thinking - not simply an ecological metaphysics but a metaphysics formed through thinking ecologically. Constructing a dialogue between Francois Laruelle, philosophical theology, and scientific ecology, he enables these ways of thinking to invade each other and cohabit together. Ground-breaking and timely, this book sets the cutting edge for contemporary thinking.' - Philip Goodchild, Professor, Religion and Philosophy, University of Nottingham, UK
"Chong brings a new voice to the study of theology and worship that is both fascinating and life-giving. Her years of service as a Christian pastor are evident in the clear and gentle nature of her book, which brings Asian beliefs and meal practices into dialogue with Christian traditions. Chong's understanding of Christianity takes into account real suffering, but offers an alternative to views that make a virtue of accepting victimization. Instead, she suggests understanding holy communion as a feast of thanksgiving and love." - Ruth Duck, Professor of Worship, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, USA
"This profound book advances Eucharist and Asian feminist theology, and serves as a new horizon of hope for those who have suffered. Chong poignantly portrays the broken Maum of women as a map of the world's stories and histories. According to Chong, Christ's broken Maum presents heals the shattered bodies of women through the Holy Communion." - Andrew Sung Park, author of The Wounded Heart of God
'The body of Christ, broken for you.' These are the words almost always shared whenever the communion bread is given. But what do these words mean for women whose bodies have been broken by injustice and violence? This book interweaves feminist theological ideas, Asian spiritual traditions, and the witnesses of comfort women - sex-slaves during World War II - to offer a new approach to a theology of body. It examines the multi-layered meaning of the broken body of Christ from Christological, sacramental, and ecclesiological perspectives, and explores the centrality of body in theological discourse.
This book pursues the implications for linking Lenin with theology, which is not a project that has been undertaken thus far. What does this inveterate atheist known for describing religion as 'spiritual booze' (a gloss on Marx's 'opium of the people') have to do with theology? This book reveals far more than might initially be expected, so much so that Lenin and the Russian Revolution cannot be understood without this complex engagement with theology.
It also seeks to bring Lenin into recent debates over the intersections between theology and the Left, between the Bible and political thought. The key names involved in this debate are reasonably well-known, including Alain Badiou, Slavoj Žižek, Giorgio Agamben, Antonio Negri, Terry Eagleton, Ernst Bloch, Theodor Adorno, Louis Althusser, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. Boer has written concerning these critics, among others, in Boer's earlier five-volume Criticism of Heaven and Earth (Brill and Haymarket, 2007-13). Lenin and Theology builds upon this earlier project but it also stands alone as a substantial study in its own right. But it will be recognised as a contribution that follows a series that has, as critics have pointed out, played a major role in reviving and taking to a new level the debate over Marxism and religion.
The book is based upon a careful, detailed and critical reading of the whole 45 volumes of his Collected Works in English translation – 55 volumes in the Russian original. From that close attention to the texts, a number of key themes have emerged: the ambivalence over freedom of choice in matters of religion; his love of the sayings and parables of Jesus in the Gospels; his own love of constructing new parables; the extended and complex engagements with Christian socialists and 'God-builders' among the Bolsheviks; the importance of Hegel for his reassessments of religion; the arresting suggestion that a revolution is a miracle, which redefines the meaning of miracle; and the veneration of Lenin after his death.
Can Christianity be accepted as the fourth wisdom tradition of China, alongside the three teachings of Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism, in their mixed, shared, and pre-conditioned engagement? Is there a contextual theology which embraces at its core the Chinese principle of 'Heaven and Humanity in Unity' (Tian ren heyi)? Is there a way to interpret theological recourses in a non-Christian context? At once spirited and intellectual, and simultaneously critical and historical, this book offers an encouraging voyage into a great space that has been left unexplored for too long.' - Yang Huilin, Vice President and Professor of Comparative Literature and Religious Studies, Renmin University of China
'Most studies of Christianity in China have been undertaken by historians or social scientists rather than by theologians. Alexander Chow's book is different. He brings twentieth-century Chinese Christian leaders such as Watchman Nee, T.C. Chao, and K.H. Ting into dialogue, not simply with the Western theological tradition, but crucially also with the writings of the Eastern Fathers and the Orthodox tradition. The result is a strikingly original work that will attract lively debate. No serious student of Chinese Christianity will be able to ignore it.' - Brian Stanley, Professor of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh, UK
'This monograph represents 'contextual' theology at its best: a deep investigation of some key concepts of salvation in the Chinese-Confucian culture vis-à-vis a critical and insightful assessment of Christian theological formulations in both lay and academic Chinese theologies. Alexander Chow gleans from the rich soteriological resources of the Christian East with its concept of theosis to propose a viable constructive theology of salvation for an Asian context. A must-read for both theologians and missiologists.' - Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Professor of Systematic Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA, USA, and Docent of Ecumenics, University of Helsinki, Finland
With the passage of time and loss of context, the tensions and trauma produced by this crisis came to be understood by later believers as reflective of a Jewish-Christian conflict. Bibliowicz suggests that the New Testament texts do not reflect a struggle between 'Christians' and 'Jews' nor a conflict between 'Judaism' and 'Christianity' but rather a heated dispute about Judaism and about Torah observance among Jesus' early followers.
"A powerful and thought-provoking meditation on the crushing effect of solitary confinement on human spirituality and creativity. Derek Jeffreys has written a brave and persuasive book that calls us to empathize and sympathize with those confined in these conditions, and in so doing to bring the mass isolation of prisoners to an end. This is an important and timely contribution to the current debate on the future of American penal policy and practice." - Sharon Shalev, Research Fellow, Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford, UK, and Author of Supermax: Controlling Risk Through Solitary Confinement (Willan, 2009)
"This book fills a major lacuna in Roman Catholic moral and theological reflection. Through careful social and cultural analysis of US hyper-incarceration of African Americans and Latinos, the authors address the nation's historical and continuing enmeshment in racism with its reproduction of white privilege and cultural power. Crucially, they invite the reader beyond guilt or dismissal or blaming the victim to conversion of mind and heart, to contemplative action rooted in a spirituality that takes social responsibility seriously. Mikulich, Cassidy, and Pfeil challenge us to uncover and face the social consequences of our complicity in social sin." - M. Shawn Copeland, Associate Professor, Systematic Theology, Boston College, USA
"Provocative. Ground-breaking. Courageous. Hopeful. Seldom have Catholic ethicists been so searingly honest about the 'white way of being' and its deep entanglement with social evil. The authors boldly name and brilliantly expose the limits and silences of theological ethics in the face of racial complicity, and yet hopefully illuminate faith-based resources for personal and social transformation. This text is a model of authentic racial solidarity." - Bryan N. Massingale, Professor of Theological Ethics, Department of Theology, Marquette University, USA
"As millions of African American lives are quietly destroyed out of white sight and white mind, we need prophets like Alex Mikulich, Laurie Cassidy, and Margeret Pfeil to show us the full meaning of sin in 'Racist America,' and to summon us to conversion." - Jon Nilson, Professor, Department of Theology, Loyola University of Chicago, USA
"This volume exposes the truth about the participation of white cultural imagination in the dynamics of racism, while also offering communal practices of resistance like witness memory and lament in the peacemaking circle. An important intellectual and spiritual resource in the struggle to transform white privilege." - Mary Elizabeth Hobgood, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, College of the Holy Cross, USA
"The Scandal of White Complicity in US Hyper-incarceration represents the cutting edge in theological work on white racism. It takes an unflinching look at white complicity in a criminal justice system that incarcerates young people of color at rates far exceeding those of apartheid South Africa or Stalinist Russia. The book also examines how, as convicted felons, ex-prisoners face a future with severely narrowed economic opportunity and the loss of the fundamental right to vote. Especially insightful is the economic and cultural analysis of how the white music industry subverted the piercing social justice critique frequently heard in early hip hop music. Instead, hip hop was twisted to reflect a commercially successful 'gangsta' image that was just another historical variation on the racist stereotype of hyper-sexual, uncontrollably violent black men. This book offers clear insights into how the belief in shared human dignity, rooted in the creation of every human being as imago dei, requires that white Christians face up to the moral scandal of the hyper-incarceration of African Americans. This book challenges white Christians to oppose hyper-incarceration through a spiritualty and a strategy of non-violent resistance." - Barbara Hilkert Andolsen, Nancy and James Buckman Chair in Applied Ethics, Theology Department, Fordham University, USA
"An inspiring, innovative, and bold collection of first-rate studies on a wide array of topics in Islamic intellectual history, from Qur'an and Law, to tradition and history, to philosophy and ethics, and from medieval source analyses to contemporary reflections on Islam and human rights. This is an earnest work worthy of being a salute to Hossein Modarressi and his significant contributions to Islamic studies." - Wadad Kadi, The Avalon Foundation Distinguished Service Professor of Islamic Studies, the University of Chicago
"This volume represents an outstanding collection of closely argued and superbly documented papers on law, theology, and philosophy in medieval Islamic society. Rather than rehashing thrice-familiar debates, the authors focus on new or little-noticed problems. In so doing, they open up fresh perspectives on the complex intellectual world fashioned by Shi'ite, Sunni, Christian, and Jewish scholars. Altogether, a fitting tribute to the career of Prof. Modarressi." - R. Stephen Humphreys, Research Professor in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
"Straddling generations of some of the most accomplished scholars, and venturing into some of the most interesting crooks and crannies of scholarship, this work is a fine and valuable contribution to Islamic Studies, certain to contribute handsomely to the field." - Sherman Jackson, King Faisal Chair in Islamic Thought and Culture and Professor of Religion and American Studies and Ethnicity, University of Southern California
"A dazzling display of scholarship. This diverse and engaging set of studies will benefit anyone interested in the history of Islamic thought." - Marion Katz, associate professor, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, New York University
"A wonderful array of essays from an impressive list of contributors, including several promising young scholars as well as many well-established authorities, Law and Tradition in Classical Islamic Thought bears testimony to Professor Modarressi's dedicated teaching and collegiate generosity over many years and in different academic institutions. The very range of the topics, from source studies to legal and historical traditions, is a tribute to a scholar with a formidable understanding of history in its widest sense." - Mohsen Ashtiany, Center for Iranian Studies, Columbia University
"Rigoglioso explores the power of virgin birth, or parthenogenesis, as the primal creative process. The clarity of her analysis reveals how pervasive and influential this motif and its rites were in the ancient world. Most interesting is her remarkable explication of the Eleusinian Mysteries, where - by her application of the ‘missing piece’ of virgin birth - she makes sense of much that has been passed over or ignored in the ancient texts. This is an original piece of scholarship that dares to imagine traditions at the foundation of Western culture in an entirely new light. As with any paradigm-shifting theory, some may challenge Rigoglioso’s interpretations, but all readers will recognize that parthenogenesis, as a symbol of profound spiritual perception, could not have received a more articulate spokesperson. One feels in reading her work that she is writing from inside a tradition that we didn’t even know existed, and the authenticity of her writing makes it all the more accessible and inviting." - Gregory Shaw, Professor of Religious Studies, Stonehill College and author of Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus
"With this study, Rigoglioso has substantively corrected the common perception that ‘a few’ of the Greek goddesses have an inconsequential association with parthenogenesis. Her insightful explication of the parthenogenetic motif in the attributes of all the pre-Greek goddesses, as well as in the Thesmophoria and the Eleusinian Mysteries, establishes the generative powers of the Virgin Mother goddesses as a central dynamic in the pre-Greek substratum of Western religion." - Charlene Spretnak, author of Lost Goddesses of Early Greece
"Having followed Altizer's theology since the late 1970s, I can confidently state that The Apocalyptic Trinity ranks among his very best in terms of erudition, insight, and imagination. This extraordinary work is not only the culmination of his original apocalyptic theology; it also firmly situates his position in the historical trajectory of dogmatic theology. As Altizer makes patently clear, the doctrine of the Trinity is not a biblical teaching, but represents instead a strain of dogmatic ecclesiastical theology at its most abstract and mysterious level. Altizer does not offer an apology for the Trinity; rather, he historically situates and trenchantly critiques this deepest and, as he persuasively argues, most dangerous of dogmas." –- Brian Schroeder, Professor of Philosophy and Director of Religious Studies, Rochester Institute of Technology
"In the beginning was the meal - the most basic and pervasive of social formations in the ancient world. These studies take us into this intimate world to discover its customs, its culture, and its power to create community among companions. A critical contribution to the study of antiquity and the social world of early Christianity." - Stephen J. Patterson, Atkinson Professor of Religious Studies, Willamette University
"Meals in the Early Christian World is a splendid collection that engages the essential issues for understanding banqueting practices in the ancient world: the structure and social functions of the meal; materiality and the physical aspects of dining; the ideals of social 'equality' and the realities of hierarchical arrangement and servitude; and the semiotics of 'reclining'. Resisting the temptation to fragment dining practices into 'Jewish,' 'Greek' and 'Roman' meals, this volume makes a compelling case for seeing dining practices as a common and unifying feature of ancient Mediterranean culture." - John S. Kloppenborg, Professor and Chair, Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto
"Dennis E. Smith and Hal Taussig, long known for groundbreaking work on the study of meals in the ancient world and early Christianity, provide in this collection of essays another fine contribution that will move the study of the Greco-Roman banquets into the future. By studying the typology, the archaeology, the participants, and the culture of these banquets, Meals in the Early Christian World moves forward the scholarship of the social settings of the banquets in dialogue with the pioneering works of Smith and Klinghardt, further broadening the shift their studies have championed." - Reimund Bieringer, Professor of New Testament Exegesis, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium
"Ulrich Duchrow and Franz Hinkelammert's Transcending Greedy Money is a timely, pertinent and brilliant analysis and critique of modernity and western civilization. The current economic crisis and the consistent and continuing impoverization of people requires a courageous and alternative strategy to combat global greed and neoliberalism which produces suffering, loss, and exclusion. Duchrow and Hinkelammert chart a way forward by casting a critical eye on the modern economic system based on money, private property, and interest, and persuasively argue that religion can be a proactive impetus and liberatory mechanism for social movements and faith communities to forge a new future outside the shadow of neoliberal economics. This volume is indispensable reading for anyone concerned about socio-economic equality in a world dominated by profit and greed." - Farid Esack, Professor and Head, Department of Religion Studies, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
"Transcending Greedy Money: Interreligious Solidarity for Just Relations is a brilliant challenge to the materialism and selfishness that have accompanied the triumph of capitalist values in many contemporary religious traditions. Duchrow and Hinkelammert confront the misuse of the Bible to condone acts of injustice and destructive violence, the spread of the property-money-interest economy, coupled with imperial political structures, leading to increased material and psycho-spiritual suffering in advanced capitalist societies, and show how these very conditions are leading to new and potentially revolutionary developments that may bring us closer to the world both religious and secular people yearn for and spiritual progressives fight for! Challenging the spiritual void in leftist thinking, this book is indispensable for any religious or spiritual person who wants to see the world healed and transformed." - Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun Magazine www.tikkun.org, chair of The Network of Spiritual Progressives, and author of 11 books, most recently Embracing Israel/Palestine
"With diverse Biblical, Buddhist, and Islamic perspectives, Duchrow and Hinkelammert critique modernity (without falling into postmodernism) to build a radical new paradigm of collective human life on the planet." - François Houtart, professor emeritus, Catholic University of Louvain UCL, founder and advisor, CETRI ( Centre Tricontinental, a Belgian non-governmental organization), co-founder, World Social Forum, Fundación Pueblo Indio del Ecuador
"This book is a wide-angled and original analysis of the past, present and future of Ethiopian society and politics, achieving what much secular social science still thinks cannot or should not be attempted. It effectively deploys a profoundly religious notion, that of 'covenant', both as an explanatory device to illuminate one of the most powerful, but often neglected, drivers of Ethiopian history and culture and as a fruitful normative resource to guide it into a more just and peaceful future." - Jonathan Chaplin, Director, the Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics, Cambridge, and Co-editor of God and Global Order: The Power of Religion in American Foreign Policy (Baylor University Press, 2010)
"Writing into the tensions of cultural dynamism in a globalizing world, Mohammed Girma makes an important contribution to religious studies and political theory by exploring resources for Ethiopians to interpret and negotiate social change." - Willis Jenkins, Margaret Farley Associate Professor of Social Ethics, Yale Divinity School