|
Books > Religion & Spirituality > Aspects of religions (non-Christian) > Religious institutions & organizations > Religious social & pastoral thought & activity
John J. Fitzgerald addresses here one of life's enduring questions
- how to achieve personal fulfillment and more specifically whether
we can do so through ethical conduct. He focuses on two significant
twentieth-century theologians - Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and
Pope John Paul II - seeing both as fitting dialogue partners, given
the former's influence on the Second Vatican Council's
deliberations on the Jews, and the latter's groundbreaking
overtures to the Jews in the wake of his experiences in Poland
before and during World War II. Fitzgerald demonstrates that
Heschel and John Paul II both suggest that doing good generally
leads us to growth in various components of personal fulfillment,
such as happiness, meaning in life, and freedom from selfish
desires. There are, however, some key differences between the two
theologians - John Paul II emphasizes more strongly the
relationship between acting well and attaining eternal life,
whereas Heschel wrestles more openly with the possibility that
religious commitment ultimately involves anxiety and sadness. By
examining historical and contemporary analyses, including the work
of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, the philosopher Peter Singer, and
some present-day psychologists, Fitzgerald builds a narrative that
shows the promise and limits of Heschel's and John Paul II's views.
American environmentalism historically has been associated with the
interests of white elites. Yet religious leaders in the
twenty-first century have helped instill concern about the earth
among groups diverse in religion, race, ethnicity, and class. How
did that happen and what are the implications? Building on
scholarship that provides theological and ethical resources to
support the "greening" of religion, God and the Green Divide
examines religious environmentalism as it actually happens in the
daily lives of urban Americans. Baugh demonstrates how complex
dynamics related to race, ethnicity, and class factor into
decisions to "go green." By carefully examining negotiations of
racial and ethnic identities as central to the history of religious
environmentalism, this work complicates assumptions that religious
environmentalism is a direct expression of theology, ethics, or
religious beliefs.
Leonardo da Vinci, Milan's Renaissance ideal, is tasked with
painting The Last Supper but struggles to find the perfect person
to model as Christ. Vittorio Dessa, a young farmer, is eventually
spotted, plucked from farm life and placed at the heart of an alien
world of art and science, aristocracy, politics and intrigue.
Initially shocked, Vittorio gradually adjusts to the artist's
exuberant manner and ambitious ideas, and after some hesitation,
resolves to pursue his own ambitions and venture beyond the safety
of the city walls. Thus encouraged, Vittorio's fortunes boom, but
ill-equipped to deal with the transformation, his life slowly
lapses into one of paranoia, jealousy and eventually murder. The
strands of the story climax at Leonardo's very public reveal of The
Last Supper painting.
|
|