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Our seduction into beliefs in competition, scarcity, and
acquisition are producing too many casualties. We need to depart a
kingdom that creates isolation, polarized debate, an exhausted
planet, and violence that comes with the will to empire. The
abbreviation of this empire is called a consumer culture. We think
the free market ideology that surrounds us is true and inevitable
and represents progress. We are called to better adapt, be more
agile, more lean, more schooled, more, more, more. Give it up.
There is no such thing as customer satisfaction. We need a new
narrative, a shift in our thinking and speaking. An Other Kingdom
takes us out of a culture of addictive consumption into a place
where life is ours to create together. This satisfying way depends
upon a neighborly covenant an agreement that we together, will
better raise our children, be healthy, be connected, be safe, and
provide a livelihood. The neighborly covenant has a different
language than market-hype. It speaks instead in a sacred tongue.
Authors Peter Block, Walter Brueggemann, and John McKnight invite
you on a journey of departure from our consumer market culture,
with its constellations of empire and control. Discover an
alternative set of beliefs that have the capacity to evoke a
culture where poverty, violence, and shrinking well-being are not
inevitable a culture in which the social order produces enough for
all. They ask you to consider this other kingdom. To participate in
this modern exodus towards a modern community. To awaken its
beginnings are all around us. An Other Kingdom outlines this
journey to construct a future outside the systems world of
solutions.
Amid all the hand-wringing about the loss of community in America
these days, here is a book that celebrates the ability of
neighborhoods to heal from within. John McKnight tells how the
experts' best efforts to rebuild and revitalize communities are in
fact destroying them. McKnight focuses on four "counterfeiting"
aspects of society: professionalism, medicine, human service
systems, and the criminal justice system. Because in many areas the
ideological roots of service grow from a religious ideal, the book
concludes with a reflection on the idea of Christian service and
its transformation into carelessness. Reforming our human service
institutions won't work, McKnight writes. These systems do too
much, intervene where they are ineffective, and try to substitute
service for irreplaceable care. Instead of more or better services,
the book demonstrates that the community capacity of the local
citizens is the basis for resolving many of America's social
problems.
There is a growing movement of people with a different vision for
their local communities. They know that real satisfaction and the
good life are not provided by organizations, institutions, or
systems. No numbers of great CEOs, central offices, or long range
plans produce what a community can produce. People are discovering
a new possibility for their lives. They have a calling. They are
called. And together they call upon themselves. This possibility is
idealistic, and yet it is an ideal within our grasp. It is a
possibility that is both idealistic and realistic. Our culture
leads us to believe that a satisfying life can be purchased. It
tells us that in the place where we live, we don't have the
resources to create a good life. This book reminds us that a
neighborhood that can raise a child, provide security, sustain our
health, secure our income, and care for our vulnerable people is
within the power of our community. This book gives voice to our
ideal of a beloved community. It reminds us of our power to create
a hope-filled life. It assures us that when we join together with
our neighbors we are the architects of the future where we want to
live.
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