In Women Healing Earth noted theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether brings together illuminating writings of fourteen Latin American, Asian, and African women on the meaning of eco-theological issues in their own contexts - and the implications they have for women in the first world. Ruether has spent the last several years exploring the environmental crisis, the roles of religion and feminists, and what third-world women have to say. Ecofeminists in the North must listen carefully to women in the South since common problems can only be solved by understanding cultural and historical differences. When women of the South reflect on ecological themes, these questions are rooted in life and death matters, not in theory, nor statistics. As Ruether writes, "Deforestation means women walking twice as far each day to gather wood .... Pollution means children in shantytowns dying of dehydration from unclean water". Impoverishment of the environment equals literal impoverishment for the vast majority of people on the planet. In addressing the intertwining issues of ecology, of class and race, of religion and its liberative elements, Women Healing Earth offers profound insights for all women and men involved in the struggles to overcome violence against women and nature, and to ensure ecological preservation and social justice.

The wrenching situation in the Middle East, recent events have shown, is as complex as it is volatile. In this immensely learned and clarifying volume-here updated and issued in paper for the first time-the Ruethers trace the tortured and contested history of Israel/Palestine from biblical times through the Diaspora, the development of Zionism, the creation of the modern state of Israel, and the subsequent conflict with Arab and Palestinian nationalism. Magisterial in its grasp of the historical, political, economic, and religious roots of the conflict, The Wrath of Jonah also offers convincing analysis of the moral and political dilemmas facing Israelis and Palestinians today. Though they see possibilities for peace, the Ruethers are forthright about what they and others see as Israel's betrayal of its own original mandate. Their purpose, state the Ruethers, "continues to be to make a modest contribution to truthful historical accountability that must underlie the quest for justice, without which there can be no 'peace.'"

New methodologies from social theory, cultural anthropology, and gender studies have emerged which take religion and cultural values into perspective. Particular light shed on social transformations, religious practices and theological perspectives.

From the earliest interactions of Christians with the Roman Empire to today's debates about the separation of church and state, the Christian churches have been in complex relationships with various economic and political systems for centuries. Renowned theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether analyzes the ways the Christian church has historically interacted with powerful systems such as patriarchy, racism, slavery, and environmentalism, while looking critically at how the church shapes these systems today. With a focus on the United States, Christianity and Social Systems provides an introductory analysis of the interactions between the churches and major systems that have shaped western Christian and post-Christian society. Ruether discusses ideologies, such as liberalism and socialism, and includes three country case studies-Nicaragua, South Africa, and North and South Korea-to further illustrate the profound influences Christianity and social systems have with each other. This book is neither an attack on the relationship between Christianity and these systems, nor an apology, but rather a nuanced examination of the interactions between them. By understanding how these interactions have shaped history, we can more fully understand how to make ethical decisions about the role of Christianity in some of today's most pressing social issues, from economic and class disparities to the environmental crisis.

From the earliest interactions of Christians with the Roman Empire to today's debates about the separation of church and state, the Christian churches have been in complex relationships with various economic and political systems for centuries. Renowned theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether analyzes the ways the Christian church has historically interacted with powerful systems such as patriarchy, racism, slavery, and environmentalism, while looking critically at how the church shapes these systems today. With a focus on the United States, Christianity and Social Systems provides an introductory analysis of the interactions between the churches and major systems that have shaped western Christian and post-Christian society. Ruether discusses ideologies, such as liberalism and socialism, and includes three country case studies-Nicaragua, South Africa, and North and South Korea-to further illustrate the profound influences Christianity and social systems have with each other. This book is neither an attack on the relationship between Christianity and these systems, nor an apology, but rather a nuanced examination of the interactions between them. By understanding how these interactions have shaped history, we can more fully understand how to make ethical decisions about the role of Christianity in some of today's most pressing social issues, from economic and class disparities to the environmental crisis.

In Nature Ethics: An Ecofeminist Perspective, Marti Kheel explores the underlying worldview of "nature ethics," offering an alternative ecofeminist perspective. She focuses on four prominent representatives of holist philosophy: two early conservationists (Theodore Roosevelt and Aldo Leopold) and two contemporary philosophers (Holmes Rolston III, and transpersonal ecologist Warwick Fox). Kheel argues that in directing their moral allegiance to abstract constructs (e.g. species, the ecosystem, or the transpersonal Self) these influential nature theorists represent a masculinist orientation that devalues concern for individual animals. Seeking to heal the divisions among the seemingly disparate movements and philosophies of feminism, animal advocacy, environmental ethics, and holistic health, Kheel proposes an ecofeminist philosophy that underscores the importance of empathy and care for individual beings as well as larger wholes.

In Nature Ethics: An Ecofeminist Perspective, Marti Kheel explores the underlying worldview of nature ethics, offering an alternative ecofeminist perspective. She focuses on four prominent representatives of holist philosophy: two early conservationists (Theodore Roosevelt and Aldo Leopold) and two contemporary philosophers (Holmes Rolston III, and transpersonal ecologist Warwick Fox). Kheel argues that in directing their moral allegiance to abstract constructs (e.g. species, the ecosystem, or the transpersonal Self) these influential nature theorists represent a masculinist orientation that devalues concern for individual animals. Seeking to heal the divisions among the seemingly disparate movements and philosophies of feminism, animal advocacy, environmental ethics, and holistic health, Kheel proposes an ecofeminist philosophy that underscores the importance of empathy and care for individual beings as well as larger wholes.

Rosemary Radford Ruether's authoritative, award-winning critique of women's unequal standing in the church, which explored the complex history of redemption in evaluating conflict over the fundamental meaning of the Christian gospel for gender relations, is now in an updated and expanded edition. Ruether highlights women theologians' work to challenge the patriarchal paradigm of historical theology and to present redemption linked to the liberation of women. Ruether turns her attention to the situation of women globally and how the growing plurality of women's voices from multicultural and multireligious contexts articulates feminist liberation theology today.

Violence remains endemic in today's society. Religious morality and social prejudice can lead to many acts of violence going unnoticed. 'Weep Not for Your Children' presents a selection of essays that examine the ways in which religion and violence interconnect. The presence of violence in the origins of cultural and religious norms is examined. The essays cover a wide range of examples of violence: from the Holocaust to domestic violence and from the violence created by economic systems to that created by the construction of gender itself. 'Weep Not for Your Children' challenges and provokes the reader to think beyond traditional associations of good and evil.

Traces the historical and ideological patterns of the view Americans have of themselves as an elect nation inhabiting a promised land and enjoying a uniquely favored relation with God and a mission to spread redemption qua democracy throughout the world. This view, coupled with racial exclusivism, privileges whites and marginalizes other citizens. In the 18th and 19th centuries a doctrine of the rights of man excluded the two primary non-white groups present in the territory, Native Americans and Africans. Manifest Destiny justified the expansion across the North American continent, while forcing Mexico through war to cede a third of its land, excluding Mexicans, Indians, Africans and Asians from this expanded citizenry. In the 20th century, American perception of its mission became imperialist beyond the continental borders, occupying the Philippines and the Caribbean, claiming hegemonic dominance over Latin America and the Pacific islands. Since WWII, the US has taken the role of Global policeman to enforce neocolonial relations over much of the third world and beyond.

America, Amerikkka traces the historical and ideological patterns of the U.S. American view of themselves as an elect nation inhabiting a promised land and enjoying a uniquely favored relation with God and a mission to spread redemption qua democracy throughout the world. This view of unique election has been coupled racial exclusivism privileging and marginalizing non-whites as citizens of the nation. In the 18th and 19th centuries a doctrine of the rights of man excluded the two primary non-white groups present in the territory, Native Americans and Africans. Manifest Destiny justified the expansion across the North American continent, while forcing Mexico through war to cede a third of its land, excluding Mexicans, Indians, Africans and Asians from this expanded citizenry. In the 20th century, American perception of its mission became imperialist beyond the continental borders, occupying the Philippines and the Caribbean

In a time of rapid change and global confusion, how are Christians to perceive God at work in history? The theme of God's presence among the nations is here addressed from different perspectives by two major theologians. Douglas John Hall explores foundational theological questions: the providence of God, the relation of global to national concerns, and the role of the church in relation to God's worldly work. Rosemary Radford Ruether raises the question of the presence of God in the context of three major crises of our times-the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, global poverty and the preferential option for the poor, and the ecological crisis.

Integrating Ecofeminism, Globalization, and World Religions addresses the practical relevance of the interconnection of feminism, ecology, and religious theological thought, and will ask questions about the lack of attention to gender issues in both ecological theology and deglobalization theory. The book knits together four concerns: globalization, interfaith ecological theology, ecofeminism, and deglobalization movements and thought. It examines how gender needs to be connected with inter-faith ecological theology and with critical analysis of globalization. It asks how to connect theory and practice; and how theoretical views about a more earth friendly theology have actual relevance to the deglobalization struggle. The book looks at these issues comparatively across different world religions and across different regions of the earth.

Description: Breaking the Glass Box includes spiritual formation process for liberation from gender oppression through multiple awareness practices of conflicts in han-based Korean culture of society and church. The metaphor has multiple liberation process: ""invisible glass box,"" ""visible glass box,"" ""breaking the glass box,"" and ""sticky rice."" This liberation process includes consicentization, consciousness-raising, and a heightened cultural awareness in discerning the reasons of interpersonal conflicts in Korean socio-cultural contexts. By exploring the multi-faceted han-jeong dynamics with Feminist theology and Asian Feminism, the important aspects of re-imaging the self and God as spiritual formation have been examined with contemplative practices of Internal Family System (IFS) and self-compassion to create the healthy jeong-filled solidarity group. The ""sticky rice"" is a new cultural paradigm for Korean women's jeong-filled hospitality. The broken pieces of the glass box will be transformed into the grains of rice by the positive jeong-filled hospitality of cooking sticky rice. In the solidarity group of jeong-filled hospitality, represented by rice ready to cook a serving of delicious sticky rice, people can enjoy the fellowship of healing, forgiving, and reconciling of the sticky rice. These images are intended to promote a healthy community of ministry and spirituality for Korean women.

In telling the story of her sons thirty-year struggle with schizophrenia, Ruether lays bare the inhumane treatment throughout history of people with mental illness. Despite countless reforms by idealistic reformers and an enlightened understanding that mental illness is a physical disease like any other, conditions for people who struggle with mental illness are little improved. Ruether asks why this is so and then goes on to imagine what we would do for people with mental illness if we really cared.