Liberating Faith

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.

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., A powerfully inspiring interfaith overview of social change perspectives., A must-read for those who want to rejuvenate their spirit, fire their religious imagination, and live interdependently with earth., Roger Gottlieb has gathered for us voices that bring together passion for justice, reverence for nature, religious depth, and a commitment to act. They sharpen our vision of what is and what could be. They speak with the peace and perserverance that arises from spiritually rooted political engagement. These are voices we dearly need. Listen., This volume could hardly be more timely! It appears just as new alliances of religious progressives are most needed. For discouraged progressives of all persuasions, it is an inspiring and instructive reminder of what has gone before, with remarkable achievement along the way. And for those who don't know the deep running streams of progressive religion, it is a vital education at the right time.

Roger S. Gottlieb is professor of philosophy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He is the author and editor of eleven books on politics, religion, philosophy, and environmentalism.