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Historical theologian Beverly Mitchell probes some of the most egregious assaults on humans in the modern era to divine not only the root of racial and ethnic oppressions but also the unassailable heart of human dignity revealed in that suffering. Mitchells work looks at the parallel oppressions that were visited upon African Americans in the slave era and upon Jews in the Nazi era. Mitchell finds a deeper commonality is the underlying religious and ideological justifications for their oppressions and the underlying, dynamic theological features of each.
This book examines the phenomenon of female child soldiering from various theological perspectives. It is an interdisciplinary work that brings Christian feminist theologies into dialogue to analyze the complex ethical, geopolitical, social, and theological issues involved in the militarization of girls and women and gender-based violence. With contributions from a range of interdisciplinary and multicultural authors, this book offers reflections and perspectives that coalesce as a comprehensive overview of feminist theological insights into child soldiering.
This work attempts to uncover the function of religion for those degraded on the basis of race. Accordingly, Recalibrating Spirit reveals the role of religion in critical reflection on and active protest against negative assertions about racial identity in general, and the abuse of black life in particular.
Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) was one of the most important literary voices to emerge from the Holocaust. The Nazis took the lives of most of his family, destroyed the community in which he was raised, and subjected him to ghettoization, imprisonment in Auschwitz and Buchenwald, and a death march. It is remarkable not only that Wiesel survived and found a way to write about his experiences, but that he did so with elegance and profundity. His novels grapple with questions of tradition, memory, trauma, madness, atrocity, and faith. The Struggle for Understanding examines Wiesel's literary, religious, and cultural roots and the indelible impact of the Holocaust on his storytelling. Grouped in sections on Hasidic origins, the role of the Other, theology and tradition, and later works, the chapters cover the entire span of Wiesel's career. Books analyzed include the novels Dawn, The Forgotten, The Gates of the Forest, The Town Beyond the Wall, The Testament, The Time of the Uprooted, The Sonderberg Case, and Hostage, as well as his memoir, Night. What emerges is a portrait of Wiesel's work in its full literary richness.
To be human means to resist dehumanization. In the darkest periods of human history, men and women have risen up and in many different voices said this one thing: “Do not treat me like this. Treat me like the human being that I am.” Claiming Her Dignity explores a number of stories from the Old Testament in which women in a variety of creative ways resist the violence of war, rape, heterarchy, and poverty. Amid the life-denying circumstances that seek to attack, violate, and destroy the bodies and psyches of women, men, and children, the women featured in this book absolutely refuse to succumb to the explicit, and at times subtle but no less harmful, manifestations of violence that they face.
This volume discusses normative theological categories from a black perspective and argues that there is no major Christian doctrine on which black theology has not commented. Part One explores introductory questions such as: what have been the historical and social factors fostering a black theology, and what are some of the internal factors key to its growth? Part Two examines major doctrines which have been important for black theology in terms of clarifying key intellectual foci common to the study of religion. The final part discusses black theology as a world-wide development constituted by interdisciplinary approaches. The volume has an important role in bringing Christian thought into confrontation with one of the central challenges of modernity, namely the problem of race and racism. This Companion puts theological themes in conversation with issues of ethnicity, gender, social analysis, politics and class and is ideal for undergraduate and graduate students.
A timely and challenging collection of essays on Jesus Christ through the perspective of the slaves and the struggles of African Americans today.
Stories of Jesus' passion and death lie at the core of Christian identity. They offer an encounter with his experience of the human condition: betrayals by those closest to him, his own fear of death, uncertainty about God's will, and the endurance of terrible suffering and an ignominious death. From generation to generation, these stories have functioned in sacred and saving ways for Christians. Yet, misinterpretations of the passion narratives have rationalized hostility to and violence against Jews as "Christ killers". This sacrilegious telling cries out for redemption. Redeeming Christianity's sacred story requires respect, even awe, for its power; demands rigorous examination of the history between Jews and Christians and the ethical obligation to be altered by this history; and entails pursuing solid biblical scholarship, principles for reinterpreting troubling texts, and incorporation into Christian spirituality. Redeeming Our Sacred Story challenges us to forge more just relations between Jews and Christians. It witnesses to the world that reconciliation is possible. (Back cover).
An assessment of the development and achievements of the field of Psychological Hermeneutics.
Dear to the hearts of many Christians is the land of the Bible, which today is convulsed by strife. Contradictory claims about the past, present, and future of this land can bewilder us. The essays in this volume invite Christians of every denomination to share in perspectives that are solidly grounded in Scripture and tradition, yet serve as alternatives to the currently prevailing approaches. A Lutheran, two Roman Catholics, two Episcopalians (one of whom is also a member of the American Baptist Church), an Eastern Orthodox Christian, and a Congregational (United Church of Christ) pastor explore the ramifications, for today's ongoing crisis, of ancient Israel's Covenant, of the early church's theological insights, and of the post-Reformation experiences of various branches of Christianity.