Ha uma crise mundial nos modelos e nas relacoes familiares. A familia e o espaco afetivo onde, em principio, todo ser humano adquire os seus primeiros valores. Ora, as estruturas familiares estao em crise, o que se reflete, por exemplo, no aumento da dissolucao de casamentos, no aparecimento de novos tipos de unioes, etc. Por tudo isto, muitos paises manifestam cada vez mais dificuldade em elegerem um conjunto de valores que considerem fundamentais na educacao dos seus filhos. As vezes, ate conseguem eleger os valores, mas tem extrema dificuldade na hora de transmiti-los devido as circunstancias hodiernas. Os pais adoecem seus filhos com atitudes totalmente contraditorias ao bom senso como: descaracterizacao do papel paternal e maternal que deveriam exercer, falta de respeito, praticas sexuais chocantes, falta de confianca por causa da palavra nunca cumprida, comportamento indiferente para com os filhos, racionalidade extremada e exacerbada, falta de afetividade familiar, e manipulacao dos filhos com o poder economico. Nao e uma influencia ma da sociedade para com a familia, mas e exatamente o inverso.

Las personas afligidas necesitan ayuda. Pero, en ocasiones, las personas que quieren ayudar a los que sufren necesitan mayor informacion acerca de los problemas que les presentan. Consejeria biblica: 40 temas criticos proporciona las respuestas. Este libro brinda a los pastores, consejeros profesionales, lideres de jovenes y los creyentes en general una amplia gama de informacion para ayudarles en situaciones de consejeria (tanto formales como informales). Los temas tratados incluyen las adicciones, el perdon, el abuso sexual, la preocupacion y muchos mas. Para cada uno de los 40 temas tratados el lector encontrara un esquema util en ocho partes que identifica: (1) sintomas y patrones tipicos, (2) definiciones e ideas claves, (3) preguntas que hacer, (4) instrucciones para la conversacion, (5) pasos a seguir, (6) sabiduria biblica, (7) oraciones de muestra, y (8) recursos recomendados.

Hurting people need help. But sometimes those who are faced with helping the hurting could use a little more information about the problems that needy people bring to them. The Quick-Reference Guide to Biblical Counseling provides the answers. This A-Z guide provides pastors, professional counselors, youth workers, and everyday believers with access to a full array of information to aid them in (formal and informal) counseling situations. Issues addressed include addictions, forgiveness, sexual abuse, worry, and many more. Each of the forty topics follows a helpful eight-part outline and identifies: (1) typical symptoms and patterns, (2) definitions and key thoughts, (3) questions to ask, (4) directions for the conversation, (5) action steps, (6) biblical insights, (7) prayer starters, and (8) recommended resources.

Aprenda acerca de...- La epidemia de caidas morales que amenaza tanto a los lideres como a los cristianos en general- Como vivir una vida moral de pureza y santidad- Como guarder su matrimonio de comtaminacion moral- Como proteger su ministerio y su testimonio de las aschanzas del pecado sexual- Porque los pastores y lideres cristianos son blancos para los ataques de Satanas en el area moral- Cuales son las senales de alerta cuando uno corre el peligro de una caida moral- Los deferentes tipos de pecado sexual y lo que la Biblia dice acerca de ellos- Cuales son las influencias que puenden llevar a un problema moral

Larry nos ensena como vivir en pureza de pensamiento y accion. -- Wayne Myers, misionero veterano a Mexico

Faith-based organizations (FBOs) have historically played an important role in delivering health and social services in developing countries; however, little research has been done on their role in HIV prevention and care, particularly in Latin America. This title describes FBO involvement in HIV/AIDS in three Central American countries hard hit by this epidemic: Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras. The authors discuss the range of FBO activities and assess the implications of FBO involvement in addressing HIV/AIDS, such as churches' diverse presence and extensive reach, the unwillingness of some FBOs to discuss condom use, and their lack of experience in evaluating the impact of programs. A Spanish translation of this report is also available.

This is an historical survey of 20th Century Roman Catholic Theological Ethics (also known as moral theology). The thesis is that only through historical investigation can we really understand how the most conservative and negative field in Catholic theology at the beginning of the 20th could become by the end of the 20th century the most innovative one. The 20th century begins with moral manuals being translated into the vernacular. After examining the manuals of Thomas Slater and Henry Davis, Keenan then turns to three works and a crowning synthesis of innovation all developed before, during and soon after the Second World War. The first by Odon Lottin asks whether moral theology is adequately historical; Fritz Tillmann asks whether it's adequately biblical; and Gerard Gilleman, whether it's adequately spiritual. Bernard Haering integrates these contributions into his Law of Christ. Of course, people like Gerald Kelly and John Ford in the US are like a few moralists elsewhere, classical gate keepers, censoring innovation. But with Humanae vitae, and successive encyclicals, bishops and popes reject the direction of moral theologians. At the same time, moral theologians, like Josef Fuchs, ask whether the locus of moral truth is in continuous, universal teachings of the magisterium or in the moral judgment of the informed conscience. In their move toward a deeper appreciation of their field as forming consciences, they turn more deeply to local experience where they continue their work of innovation. Each continent subsequently gives rise to their own respondents: In Europe they speak of autonomy and personalism; in Latin America, liberation theology; in North America, Feminism and Black Catholic theology; and, in Asia and Africa a deep post-colonial interculturatism. At the end I assert that in its nature, theological ethics is historical and innovative, seeking moral truth for the conscience by looking to speak crossculturally. >

Stepping Out of the Brain Drain is an important contribution to the intensifying debate about highly skilled migration from developing to developed countries. Addressing the issue from the perspective of Catholic social thought, the authors demonstrate that both the economic and ethical rationales for the teaching's opposition to 'brain drain' have been undermined in recent years and show how the adoption of a less critical policy could provide enhanced opportunities for poor countries to accelerate their economic development.

As hostilities in Iraq continue to dominate the media, and the US-led coalition's approach to the war and the reconstruction of Iraq increasingly in question, Andrew White's is the voice of authority, always realistic but never without hope. But where is hope now? What is the future for Iraq? This is the fascinating, first-hand account of one man's deepening involvement over seven years with Iraq. As an envoy for peace, the author has dedicated himself to religious and political reconciliation in Iraq and frequently risked his life. In this new edition, Andrew White reflects on what he has seen in Iraq during his ongoing visits since 2005, including the escalating violence, working with the military and the involvement of the Americans. He also assesses what he considers mistakes in the peace process. Among the more dramatic moments are the trial of Saddam, at which Andrew White was present; the abduction of the leaders of St George's church and their presumed death; and hostage crises including the death of colleagues. The author's personal struggle has been very real, but even at the worst moments he does not lose hope. He is remarkable for his capacity to relate to people at both a high and a more ordinary level, and his picture of life on the ground in Iraq is as compelling as his insights into what goes on behind the political censors. Interspersed in this compelling account are reflections on such profound issues as the nature of evil, the necessity sometimes of war and - perhaps the most urgent question - whether religion is part of the problem or the solution.

Gender, Religion and Diversity provides an introduction to some of the most challenging perspectives in the contemporary study of gender and religion. In recent years, women's and gender studies have transformed the international study of religion through the use of interdisciplinary and cross-cultural methodologies, which have opened up new and highly controversial issues, challenging previous paradigms and creating fresh fields of study. As this book shows, gender studies in religion raises new and difficult questions about the gendered nature of religious phenomena, the relationship between power and knowledge, the authority of religious texts and institutions, and the involvement and responsibility of the researcher undertaking such studies as a gendered subject. This book is the outcome of an international collaboration between a wide range of researchers from different countries and fields of religious studies. The range and diversity of their contributions is the very strength of this book, for it shows how gendering works in studying different religious materials, whether foundational texts from the Bible or Koran, philosophical ideas about truth, essentialism, history or symbolism, the impact of French feminist thinkers such as Irigaray or Kristeva, or again critical perspectives dealing with the impact of race, gender, and class on religion, or by deconstructing religious data from a postcolonial critical standpoint or examining the impact of imperialism and orientalism on religion and gender.

This anthology, with contributions by leading scholars, introduces a new theme into the growing field of science-and-theology. This is the third volume published in association with ESSSAT in the series. This volume focuses on two topics that have so far received little attention, in the growing field of science-and-theology, i.e. ethical matters and issues raised by the technological applications of scientific knowledge. The book's main themes are: technology's impact on our worldview; morality, nature, and culture; and, morality in a technological society. The book is a selection of contributions to the ESSSAT conference in Nijmegen on "Values and Ethical Issues in Theology, Science and Technology". The essays have been selected on the basis of quality, and revised in order to create a comprehensive and carefully focused volume.

This is the first book to provide an overview of how Muslim activists are responding on the ground to the global environmental crisis. The detrimental effects of environmental degradation are felt most severely by the world's poor, a disproportionate number of whom are Muslims. Unfortunately, governments of Muslim societies have been slow to respond to environmental problems, while opposition movements as well have mostly chosen to focus on other issues. Nevertheless, environmental awareness and activism are growing throughout the Muslim world. This book offers chapters by leading Muslim environmentalists which survey environmental initiatives in Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Malaysia. Issues are detailed pointing out both successes and failures and describing the unique challenges facing the world's very diverse Muslim societies in striving to balance development and social justice with preserving the integrity of the earth's life support systems.

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.

Religion as a Public Good: Jews and Other Americans on Religion in the Public Square explores the often controversial topic of how religion ought to relate to American public life. The sixteen distinguished contributors, both Jewish and Christian, reflect on the topic out of their own disciplines-social ethics, political theory, philosophy, law, history, theology, and sociology. and take a stand based on their religious convictions and political beliefs. The volume is at once scholarly and committed, polemic and civil, reflective and activist. Written in the shadow of 9/11, it invites a new consideration of how religion enhances democratic public life with full awareness of the dangers that religion can sometimes pose. The volume is polemical, as befits the topic, but also civil, as befits a dialogue about an issue of profound significance for democratic citizenship.

This edited volume is a compilation of original scholarly papers on the theme of cultural diversity in Islamic thought and practice under conditions of early and late modernity, with a specific contemporary focus on the crisis of religious tolerance in the Muslim world. Particular emphasis is placed upon Islamic concepts of cultural diversity as they contrast to the traditional Western liberal approach that takes a neutral position on tolerance to cultural difference.

You work hard planning mission trips. Now make mission trips work for you and your group. Headed to inner-city America? Appalachia? A border shantytown? Overseas? Wherever your destination, the MISSION TRIP PREP KIT contains all you need to prepare your students for an unforgettable cross-cultural experience---and tools to debrief them after they ve returned to their worlds. Use this kit--- To get on-site impact as well as long-term spiritual change in your kids. Whether you re a mission-trip novice or a savvy traveler outside your comfort zones. Whether your group s trip is geared toward reaching others with the gospel or to disciple your young missionaries. In several sessions spread over a month or two---or in an intensive, two-day training session or retreat. IN THIS LEADER S GUIDE: You ll receive not only the rationale, the how, and the logistics of planning and pulling off a missions trip, but---and this is the genius of the leader s guide---4 PRE-TRIP TEACHING SESSIONS that will help your students--- .Assess their EXPECTATIONS, their fears, their motivations. .Adjust their PERCEPTIONS of the culture they ll be working in. .Improve their emotional and spiritual STAMINA for living for a week or a month in a very different world from their own. .Practice the skills and ATTITUDES (teamwork, servanthood, Christ-centeredness) they ll need for a missions trip. And to make sure your trip s goals are accomplished and the benefits stick around for the long haul, you ll also receive 2 POST-TRIP SESSIONS that will help you DEBRIEF your students, ease them back into their own worlds, CELEBRATE with them, and make missions and ministry part of their EVERYDAY LIVES WITH JESUS. What s more, in these pre- and post-trip teaching sessions are a variety of ACTIVITIES processing points creative PRAYER IDEAS take-home applications BIBLE STUDIES relevant to mission tripping TALK OUTLINES that both instruct and inspire and lots of sessions options you can tailor to your own HIGH SCHOOLERS OR MIDDLE SCHOOLERS."

This book focuses on pastoral and lay leadership in the African American church. It deals with the internal and external issues such as the tendency toward a bifurcated mentality and practice such as the 'this is business' syndrome as well as the social issue of race and affirmative action. Ministers and laity in the black church must actively engage themselves in overcoming the inequities that are still endemic to life in urban America. Harris affirms that affirmative action policies are more important than ever in obtaining a degree of social justice.

As the federal system of entitlements and social services long provided by New Deal--era programs is dismantled and shifted to the states, the religious community finds itself relied upon more than ever to assist with social services for the needy.

"The Newer Deal" calls upon religious-based organizations and the social work--social service community to put aside their differences and forge a "limited partnership" to provide the social and welfare services that millions depend on. The proposed partnership focuses on joint care for those in need -- with attention to services for people of color, gays and lesbians, women, and programs for community empowerment and economic development -- while maintaining the values and other interests each partner traditionally holds.

The authors discuss different types of religious-based social services and draw on case examples and research findings to show how the religious community's role in providing social services is stronger than ever. They examine the relationship between the religious and the social work--social service communities, as well as the issues that have divided the two, and explain the ways in which concern for the poor is integral to the major faith groups.

Are Americans less civil than they used to be? If so, is that a bad thing? Perhaps we are just learning to be more honest. And what does civility mean? Is it just good manners? It so, perhaps it is only the complaint of privileged classes, annoyed that taxi drivers are increasingly rude and that men no longer give up their seats to women on public transportation. Or is civility a question of morality? The philosopher Peter Bertocci once argued that promptness is a fundamental form of social justice. In this lively conversation on an increasingly significant theme, major philosophers and religious scholars argue the issue on three levels. The first is manners: Henry Rosemont argues the Confucian case that manners are the substance of social relations, while Edwin Delattre and Adam Seligman believe that the issue is deeper than that; and the sociologist Alan Wolfe is persuaded that we are not less civil or ill-mannered than our predecessors. Secondly, as a social issue, James Schmidt, Lawrence Cahoone, and Adam Seligman turn to questions of structure and meaning in a civil society; Ninian Smart, David Wong, and Virginia Straus put the issue in a cross-cultural context; and Carrie Doehring warns that civility may be a barrier to honest Communication in family life. Finally, the metaphysical and religious dimensions of civility are explored by Robert Pippin and Adam McClellan. There seems to be a consensus that the lack of civility is, indeed, an increasing problem, that it is more than a class issue of manners, and that its current loss is troubling for contemporary society.

As the federal system of entitlements and social services long provided by New Deal--era programs is dismantled and shifted to the states, the religious community finds itself relied upon more than ever to assist with social services for the needy.

"The Newer Deal" calls upon religious-based organizations and the social work--social service community to put aside their differences and forge a "limited partnership" to provide the social and welfare services that millions depend on. The proposed partnership focuses on joint care for those in need -- with attention to services for people of color, gays and lesbians, women, and programs for community empowerment and economic development -- while maintaining the values and other interests each partner traditionally holds.

The authors discuss different types of religious-based social services and draw on case examples and research findings to show how the religious community's role in providing social services is stronger than ever. They examine the relationship between the religious and the social work--social service communities, as well as the issues that have divided the two, and explain the ways in which concern for the poor is integral to the major faith groups.

This book draws on extensive clinical experience to create a useful model for religious diagnosis. Clinicians and clergy will find the book useful in their care of troubled people. Contents: Foreword; Preface; Acknowledgments; Introduction: Patterns of Religious Diagnosis; Ethical Guilt: The Feeling of Blame: Being Punished, Feeling Guilty, Seeking Redress; Idolatry: The Feeling of Betrayal: Being Violated, Feeling Terror or Rage, Recovering the Hope of Ultimacy; Dread: The Feeling of Defilement: Being Abandoned, Feeling Dread, Rediscovering Joy; Summary: Diagnosis, Piety and Theology, Diagnosis and the Transcendent Function; Epilogue; Endnotes; Bibliography; Index.

Whereas many books look at how women's "bodies" are represented in different religions and cultures around the world, this work explores the site of a woman's voice and identity, her "head," The female head threatens to disrupt the classic gender distinctions that link men to speech, identity, and mind while relegating women to silence, anonymity, and flesh. The contributors to this collection argue that the objectification of women as sexual and reproductive bodies results in their symbolic beheading. Decapitation occurs symbolically in myths as well as in actual practices such as veiling, head covering, and cosmetic highlighting, which by sexualizing a woman's face turns it into an extension of her body.
The essays explore how similar treatments of the female head find their unique articulation in diverse religious traditions and cultures: in Hindu myths of beheading, in Buddhist and Tantric practices and poetry about the hair of female nuns, in the resistance to veiling by early Christian women at Corinth, in contemporary veiling practices in a Turkish village, in the eroticization of the female mouth in ancient Judaism, and in Greek and Roman cosmetic practices.
Together these essays show how the depiction of the female head is critical for an understanding of gender and its influence on other fundamental religious and cultural issues.

As head of the Sufi Order in the West, Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan has been conducting workshops and giving personal counseling for over thirty years. Introducing Spirituality into Counseling and Therapy sums up Pir Vilayat's experience in applying spiritual principles to everyday life situations, problem solving, and personal growth. Among the topics explored are spiritualizing emotion, personality and the divine inheritance, relationship, creativity, awakening and cause and purpose. Pir Vilayat gives detailed instructions for many meditation practices that can be used to bring fresh insights to bear on specific problems. Everyone concerned with human growth, whether professionally or on a more personal level, will find inspiration in this book.