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Thomas Merton (1915–1968) is considered to be one of the most important Catholic American authors of the twentieth century. In this book one can discover Merton not only as a contemplative writer and prophet, but also as a pastoral practitioner. Dominiek Lootens is a Catholic practical theologian with more than twenty years of experience as a pastoral supervisor and educator in Belgium and Germany. Using his own professional practice as a starting point, he reflects in this book on the life and work of Thomas Merton. He shows how relevant Merton can be for pastoral practitioners who are active in today’s global context. A variety of professional topics are discussed: interfaith hospital chaplaincy, migration and practical theology, pastoral supervision and spirituality, natural contemplation and Orthodox pastoral theology, racism and adult education, and the training of chaplains as social justice allies. This book offers practical theologians and pastoral practitioners an in-depth view in the life and publications of Thomas Merton and invites them to bring it into dialogue with their own professional practice.
This volume examines the possibility – or need – of a revitalization of pacifism as a world-political practice. It takes as its point of departure the observation that although ‘just war thinking’ has long been dominant in Western debates about war and peace, recent events have served to temper enthusiasm about the doctrine. Pacifism has been much less prominent a stance in recent decades, but there is the impression that it may be staging a return. Just war thinking has to a large extent failed. Outright bellicism remains as undesirable as ever. Pacifism presents itself again as a possible alternative. Once upon a time the peace movement was popular, and pacifism with it. Pacifism appealed to people. It stirred hearts and minds. It inspired political action and institutional designs. This volume examines whether pacifism can claim its ground again and how it should be redefined in light of today’s world-political circumstances.
This diverse compilation of contributions explores the pressing topic of how to provide appropriate spiritual care in the context of human migration. The psycho-spiritual dimensions of suffering particular to human migration, such as social exclusion, alienation, and various types of trauma, are considered from various disciplinary perspectives. Complex but important questions are explored: How might various methods of self-healing be better supported by spiritual caregivers? How can faith communities cultivate more supportive contexts, responsive to the particular needs prompted by migration? The International Association for Spiritual Care IASC, founded in 2015 in Bern, Switzerland, is ded...
Responding to the unprecedented violence of our times, and the corresponding interest in nonviolent solutions, this book takes up the heart of pacifism: its critique of what pacifists have termed the war system. Pacifism as War Abolitionism provides an account of the war system that draws on contemporary sociology, history, and political philosophy. The core of its critique of that system is that war begets war, and hence war will not be ended—or even constrained—by finding more principled ways to fight war, as many imagine. War can only be ended by ending the war system, which can only be done nonviolently. This has been the message of pacifism's great voices like Gandhi, Dr. Martin Lut...
When political 'extremists' - organized into parties that compete openly and successfully in democratic elections - enter the conventional institutional arena, how do mainstream actors react? This book deals with understanding how democracies respond to party-based extremism and with what consequences.
Worldwide, in theory formation and the practice of pastoral caregiving, intercultural and interreligious aspects receive a growing attention. Since its formation in 1995, the "Society of Intercultural Pastoral Care and Counselling" (SIPCC) has been at the forefront of this development, providing initiative and space for learning and reflection. The essays collected in this publication are a result of this work. Written both by practitioners and by specialists, they reflect challenges and open perspectives for an inclusive ethics of caregiving in the 21st century.
The United States is witnessing a rise in the religiously unaffiliated. Participation in traditional religious settings is in decline. But everyone inhabits a location relative to religion, whether or not they practice or identify with a religious tradition. People engage in religious encounters and relationships in myriad ways, and their religious location is one part of their intersecting identities. This shifting religious landscape challenges spiritual caregivers to provide competent care and counsel that honors how persons' religious locations intersect. Jill Snodgrass argues that without a theoretical understanding of religious location, chaplains, counselors, and other spiritual careg...
Safwat Marzouk offers a biblical vision for what it means to be an intercultural church, one that fosters just diversity, integrates different cultural articulations of faith and worship, and embodies an alternative to the politics of assimilation and segregation. A church that fosters intercultural identity learns how to embrace and celebrate difference, which in turn enriches its worship and ministry. While the church in North America might see migration as an opportunity to serve God's kingdom by showing hospitality to the migrant and the alien, migration offers the church an opportunity to renew itself by rediscovering the biblical vision of the church as a diverse community. This biblic...
A new edition of a classic text, including insights into Pope Francis encyclical on ecology."
Practical theology has outgrown its traditional pastoral paradigm. The articles in this handbook recognize that faith, spirituality, and lived religion, within and beyond institutional communities, refer to realms of cultures, ritual practices, and symbolic orders, whose boundaries are not clearly defined and whose contents are shifting. The International Handbook of Practical Theology offers insightful transcultural conceptions of religion and religious matters gathered from various cultures and traditions of faith. The first section presents ‘concepts of religion’. Chapters have to do with considerations of the conceptualizing of religion in the fields of ‘anthropology’, ‘communi...