A Spirituality of Resistance: Finding a Peaceful Heart and Protecting the Earth
Rowman & Littlefield, 2003
With clarity, humor, detailed scholarship, and passionate eloquence, Roger S. Gottlieb uses a unique range of resources to portray a spiritual path keyed to caring for the earth. This personal and powerful book speaks to anyone who has ever wondered how to be happy when there is so much suffering in the world-anyone who seeks a peaceful heart in a dark time. Its unique combination of spiritual insight, political commitment, and environmental knowledge reveals the deep ties between spiritual aspiration and ecological activism; and makes a critical contribution to both environmentalism and religious studies. Gottlieb begins by describing the gifts which spirituality offers, and how those gifts cannot be realized if we flee into avoidance or denial in the face of ecological peril. In a startling and compelling comparison between the Holocaust and the environmental crisis, he shows how a psychic dependence on "work" can lead us-even against our wills-to take part in genocide or ecocide. Addressing questions about our obligations to the earth, he deepens our understanding of what it is to live an "environmentally correct" life and what we really mean by "nature." Finally, by connecting personal fulfillment to social activism, he shows how a truly peaceful heart is only possible if we devote some of our energies to resisting the forces of destruction.
Gottlieb is able to speak to a wide audience, managing to stay away from religious dogma and speak directly to our heart. He questions the nature of how we define work, which generally forms a large part of personal identity, but is all too often under the control of bureaucracies that are contributing to the environmental degradation we all fear. He gives us the spiritual fuel needed to rekindle our desire to do what we can and not get discouraged. — Faithalive.com
Will touch the reader’s heart and move it to moral commitment. — Elie Wiesel
Provides a bold new challenge for those who are serious about cultivating the spiritual dimension of life. In eloquent prose, Gottlieb demonstrates a mastery of both the pitfalls and possibilities for spiritual development in the face of the environmental crisis. — Environmental Ethics
A brilliant and important challenge. — Rabbi Michael Lerner
If you agree we have a global problem on our hands and you want to join the spiritual seeker and the political activist in yourself, this is the book for you. — America