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Books > Christianity > Christian institutions & organizations > Christian social thought & activity
Antoinette Bosco's heart was crushed when Shadow Clark murdered her
son John and his wife Nancy. In time her grief transformed into
forgiveness. Toni felt that to want one more unnatural death would
be wrong. "I could say that the 18-year -old who ended the lives of
my children with an 8mm semiautomatic must be punished for life but
I could not say, kill this killer". Toni chose mercy over
vengeance, and again her life changed forever.
Today she is widely known as an opponent of capital punishment
in this the only modern Western nation that retains executions. In
telling her dramatic journey she presents compelling arguments why
the death penalty does not work and is morally wrong. She also
shares unforgettable true stories form parents such as Dominick
Dunne who suffered through similar experiences but also learned to
choose love over fear.
Choosing Mercy is timely, gut-honest, and inspiring. It may not
change some people's minds but it will begin to change their
hearts.
Pacifism. Jihad. Militarism. Are these our only alternatives for
dealing with global injustice today? J. Daryl Charles leads us to
reconsider a Christian view of the use of force to maintain or
reestablish justice. He shows how love for a neighbor can warrant
the just use of force. Reviewing and updating the widely recognized
but not necessarily well-understood just-war teaching of the church
through the ages, Charles shows how it captures many of the
concerns of the pacifist position while deliberately avoiding, on
the other side, the excesses of jihad and militarism. Aware of our
contemporary global situation, Charles addresses the unique
challenges of dealing with international terrorism.
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The Bethlehem Story
(Hardcover)
Andy McCullough; Foreword by Jack Sara; Afterword by David Devenish
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This collection of mostly original essays by scholars and Catholic
Worker activists provides a systematic, analytical study of the
emergence and nature of pacifism in the largest single denomination
in the United States: Roman Catholicism. The collection underscores
the pivotal role of Dorothy Day's Catholic Worker movement in
challenging the conventional understanding of just-war principles
and the American Catholic Church's identification with uncritical
militarism. Also included are a study of Dorothy Day's
preconversion pacifism, previously unpublished letters from Dorothy
Day to Thomas Merton, Eileen Egan's account of the birth and early
years of Pax, the Catholic Worker-inspired peace organization, and
in-depth coverage of how the contemporary Plowshares movement
emerged from the Catholic Worker movement.
What is the place of religious belief in modern culture? Recent
years have seen cataclysmic chab=nges in society, yet, far from
being banished from today's world, religion is assuming a new
significance. Clashing Symbols has become recognised as the most
accessible and authoritative introduction to a crucial area in
religious studies: the relationship between faith and culture.
Against the background of impending and then actual war, the
discussions of the Moot focused on the roles of moral choice and
the Christian community. The Moot was the study and discussion
group set up by J.H. Oldham (1874-1969) following the 1937 Oxford
Conference on 'Church, Community and State'. Its purpose was to
continue, in an informal, confidential but serious way, exploration
of the relation between church and society and the realisation of
Christian ethics in the public sphere. The Moot met twice or three
times a year from 1938 to 1947 (21 times in all) and was convened
by Oldham with the conscious intention of responding to the grave
crisis that was felt to be facing western society in Britain no
less than on the continent of Europe. Overall some 35 people
attended the Moot at one time or another, but its core comprised a
small number of regular members who were representative of the
highest levels in theology, social science and public affairs. In
addition to Oldham himself they included John Baillie, T.S. Eliot,
H.A. Hodges, Eleonora Iredale, Adolf Lowe, Karl Mannheim, Walter
Moberly, John Middleton Murry and Alec Vidler. Other participants
included Kathleen Bliss, Fred Clarke, Christopher Dawson, H.H.
Farmer, Hector Hetherington, Walter Oakshott and Gilbert Shaw,
while notables such as Reinhold Niebuhr, Melville Chaning-Pearce,
Donald Mackinnon, Philip Mairet, Lesslie Newbigin, William Paton,
Frank Pakenham (later Lord Longford), Michael Polanyi and Oliver
Tomkins made occasional 'guest appearances'. Against the background
of impending and then actual war, the discussions in the Moot
repeatedly focused on the 'planned' nature of modern society and
therewith the roles (if any) within it of moral choice and the
Christian community.
Various social, political, economic and cultural commentators are
presently arguing that human history is reaching a decisive stage
in its development, a stage marked by increased interconnection
between peoples, the compression of space and time, a sharing of
ideas at unprecedented levels, global trade and finance, and so on.
The shorthand word used to encompass these phenomena is
"globalization." Some embrace it, others reject it, while still
others dispute its existence. But with the abundance of literature
and debate that it generates, the topic cannot be ignored. From its
inception in the missionary mandate of Jesus (Matthew 28),
Christianity has had a global dimension to its mission.
Christianity is not a spectator to globalization but one of its
agents, one of the forces at work which have extended
interconnection between peoples, shared ideas and promoted social,
political and cultural links.
The purpose of the present work is not to provide a complete
response to the question of the mission of the church in a
globalizing world, but to establish a framework within which
answers may be sought. Grounded in the writings of Bernard Lonergan
and Robert Doran, it develops a theology of history and addresses
the churches response to the impact of globalization on vital,
social, cultural, personal and religious values. The project brings
together the perspectives of Catholicism and Pentecostalism, the
former providing a depth of wisdom and tradition, the latter
drawing on the insight of a newly emerging movement that has taken
root in every continent with remarkable energy and enthusiasm.
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