Joining Hands: Politics And Religion Together For Social Change - Hardcover

Gottlieb, Roger S.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0813365546 ISBN 13: 9780813365541

Publisher: Westview Press, 2002

Synopsis

Did Martin Luther King?s spiritual understanding of political struggle truly help the Civil Rights movement? Can breast cancer victims incorporate both spiritual wisdom and political action in their fight for life? Tackling such questions that shake the core of our political and spiritual foundations, Roger S. Gottlieb presents a brave new account of how religious ethics and progressive movements share a common vision of a transformed world. In doing so, he offers a bold and eloquent affirmation: that authentic religion requires an activist, transforming presence in the political world, and that the moral and psychological insights of religion are indispensable resources in political struggles for democracy, human rights and ecological sanity. With original and compelling interpretations of Martin Luther King and the civil rights struggle, feminism, disability rights, the global environmental movement, and the fight for breast cancer, Joining Hands will alter the way spiritual seekers, political activists, and society as a whole think about the political role of religion and the spiritual component of politics.

About this title

About the Author

Roger S. Gottliebis a professor of philosophy in the department of humanities and arts at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He is the author or editor of twelve books on politics, religion, the Holocaust, and ecology; and has contributed to numerous publications including Tikkun , the Boston Globe , Orion Afield , and Ethics . He lives in Boston.

From Booklist

Gottlieb, a humanities professor, concedes his own leftist politics and religious perspective as he takes to task liberals and conservatives, the religious and the secular, and social thinkers and policymakers in this absorbing look at the merger of religion and politics in tackling social issues. He notes the widespread view in developed nations that political life should be secular and the historic antagonism between religion and politics. But Gottlieb sees "profound shifts in economics, political culture, technology and political life" that are creating "the prospect of religion and politics remaking the world together." Religious leaders cannot actualize their own moral teachings without some political understanding of the world, he asserts. Gottlieb considers the philosophies and approaches of Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Reinhold Niebuhr, the Dalai Lama, Oscar Romero, and other theologians, social activists, and political commentators in confronting raging social and moral issues. He explores the values religion and progressive politics bring to their respective spheres and their potential to offer a common vision in addressing a range of issues, including human rights, the environment, globalization, and world poverty. Vanessa Bush
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Edition details

• Publisher: Westview Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0813365546
• ISBN 13: 9780813365541
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272