Liberating Faith: Religious Voices for Justice, Peace, and Ecological Wisdom
This sweeping new anthology shows how religion has joined with and learned from movements for social justice, peace, and ecological wisdom. Liberating Faith surveys the entire range of religious social activism: from liberation theology and feminist religion to ecotheology and peace activism. It includes theology, social critique, position papers, denominational statements, manifestos, rituals, prayers, biographical accounts, and journalistic descriptions of real world struggles, beginning with a survey of ethical teachings from traditional sources. Following sections deal with 'precursor' voices before the 20th century, Gandhi's exemplary vision, overviews of the connections between religion, society, and political movements, and impassioned accounts of particular issues. Containing voices from a multitude of traditions, national settings, and perspectives. Liberating Faith includes writings by Latin American liberation theologians and radical American religious activists, statements on social justice by the Pope and environmental morality by the Eastern Orthodox Patriarch, religious critiques of collective and interpersonal violence, passionate denunciations of racism and quiet eloquence which demands that we all stand up for morality in dark times. Among the more than eighty authors are Thomas Berry, Thich Nhat Hanh, Abraham Heschel, Martin Luther King, Winona Laduke, Michael Lerner, Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, Judith Plaskow, Rosemary Ruether, and Vandana Shiva. An invaluable teaching resource and the definitive introduction to global religious social activism, this book offers a visionary alternative to both repressive fundamentalism and spiritless secularism.
What a treasure-trove Liberating Faith is. Reading it is both intellectually enriching and spiritually nourishing. It offers an alternative to ‘repressive fundamentalism’ and ‘spiritless secularism.’ Truly, it is a rich resource for the seasoned social activist and beginner alike. — Religious Studies Review
Roger Gottlieb has done us all an enormous service by bringing together in this volume the words of the most inspiring and insightful thinkers of our time, from all over the world. We learn here, in passage after passage of surpassing eloquence, that political activism on behalf of peace and justice cannot live and grow unless suffused with spiritual powers. I hope this book will be widely read in classrooms all over the country, because it is a needed corrective for politics without heart, and religion without justice. — Howard Zinn
Roger Gottlieb offers a splendid anthology of sanctity and hope. Religious and secular voices, in the best tradition of each, speak up, loud and clear. The sum is a synthesis of enlightened, courageous idealism. In a dark time, gratitude befits. — Daniel Berrigan
This book can be of tremendous value to secondary school teachers dealing with issues of social justice, and it includes readings that would greatly serve students in a variety of ethics courses. The book is full of treasures, some timeless, some quite recent, most of which deserve the kind of slow savoring that allow the fullness of their thoughts to take hold. — Religious Studies in Secondary Schools