Liberating Faith: Religious Voices for Justice, Peace, and Ecological Wisdom

by Roger S. Gottlieb (Contributor)

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 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.

Genres: Religion, Theology, Nonfiction, Race, Spirituality

680 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2003

About the author

I am a professor of philosophy at WPI and have written or edited 17 books, on subjects ranging from political philosophy and ethics to the Holocaust and disability. My major focus for the last twenty years has been the moral, political, spiritual and religious meaning of the environmental crisis; and the role of religion and spirituality in modern life.
I've described the rise of religious environmentalism ('A Greener Faith'); and asked what spirituality can look like in an age of environmental crisis('A Spirituality of Resistance'). I've also shown how progressive religion and social justice movements can help and learn from each other ('Joining Hands').

Recently, I turned to fiction in a collection of short stories: 'Engaging Voices: Tales of Morality and Meaning in an Age of Global Warming'. This book uses fictional settings to explore the moral, political, spiritual, and emotional meanings of the environmental crisis; and also asks what it would take for us to learn to listen to and learn from those with whom we disagree.

In January 2013 my latest book came out: 'Spirituality: What it Is and Why it Matters'. This book examines the promises and perils of spiritual life as understood both within and outside of traditional faiths, explains the rise of the widespread spiritual detachment from institutional religion, and offers searching accounts of yoga, meditation, and prayer. There are also insightful studies of spirituality's relation to modern medicine, nature and the environmental crisis, and political activism.

Both 'Engaging Voices' and 'Spirituality' won Nautilus Book Awards in 2013; and 'Spirituality' was also called a 'Best Book of the Year' by the Spirituality and Practice

Reviews

[Jonna Higgins-Freese · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since an essay I wrote with Jeff Tomhave years ago is anthologized here (and has now, may I proudly say, been cited as many as two times by activists fighting fracking), of course I think this is a wonderful book. Just to have an essay I wrote within 40 pages of the Dalai Lama's words -- well, what else does a writer hope for?