The concept of spirituality permeates modern culture: from academic book series on ''Classics of Western Spirituality'' to self-help manuals, from the use of Buddhist mindfulness meditation (typically detached from Buddhist religious teachings) in medical treatment to "nature spirituality," from spiritually oriented peace activists to spiritually oriented new age music. Spirituality has become a common part of our cultural vocabulary. It is not only an important concept in its own right but plays productive and significant roles in the realms of psychology, ecology, medicine, and even politics. Millions call themselves "spiritual but not religious," academics describe much of contemporary religious life in the U.S. as focused on a spiritually oriented "seeking," and a quick search on Amazon.com turns up hundreds of books whose titles take the general form of The Spirituality of X or Spirituality and Y. At the same time, the concept is used in widely conflicting, often confusing ways. Most people think they know what it is when they see it, but attempts to define spirituality or understand it coherently are frequently limited, distorted, or ahistorical. Roger Gottlieb provides a lucid and accessible overview of what spirituality is, enabling readers to gain a clear-eyed understanding of the concept, its manifold connections to other aspects of personal and social life, its role as a positive psychological and social phenomenon, and some of the risks that attend it. The book combines thoughtful analysis with a generally sympathetic perspective in which spirituality is viewed as a potentially beneficial form of personal identity and practice, and a possible antidote to a number of the psychic ailments and social pathologies of contemporary society.

In a time of darkening environmental prospects, frightening religious fundamentalism, and moribund liberalism, the remarkable and historically unprecedented rise of religious environmentalism is a profound source of hope. Theologians are recovering nature-honoring elements of traditional religions and forging bold new theologies connecting devotion to God and spiritual truth with love for God's creation and care for the Earth. And religious people throughout the world are transforming the meaning of their faiths in the face of the environmental crisis. The successes and significance of religious environmentalism are manifest in statements by leaders of virtually all the world's religions, in new and "green" prayers and rituals, and in sophisticated criticisms of modern society's economy, politics, and culture. From the Evangelical Environmental Network to the Buddhist prime minister of Mongolia, the National Council of Churches to tree-planting campaigns in Zimbabwe, religious environmentalism has become a powerful component of the world environmental movement.
In A Greener Faith, Roger S. Gottlieb chronicles the promises of this critically important movement, illuminating its principal ideas, leading personalities, and ways of connecting care for the earth with justice for human beings. He also shows how religious environmentalism breaks the customary boundaries of "religious issues" in political life. Asserting that environmental degradation is sacrilegious, sinful, and an offense against God catapults religions directly into questions of social policy, economic and moral priorities, and the overall direction of secular society. Gottlieb contends that a spiritual perspectiveapplied to the Earth provides the environmental movement with a uniquely appropriate way to voice its dream of a sustainable and just world. Equally important, it helps develop a world-making political agenda that far exceeds interest group politics applied to forests and toxic incinerators. Rather, religious environmentalism offers an all-inclusive vision of what human beings are and how we should treat each other and the rest of life.
Gottlieb deftly analyzes the growing synthesis of the movement's religious, social, and political aspects, as well as the challenges it faces in consumerism, fundamentalism, and globalization. Highly engaging and passionately argued, this book is an indispensable resource for people of faith, environmentalists, scholars, and anyone who is concerned about our planet's future.

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.

Did Martin Luther King's spiritual understanding of political struggle truly help the Civil Rights movement? Can breast cancer victims incorporate both spiritual wisdom and political action in their fight for life? Confronting questions that challenge the foundations of both politics and spirituality, Roger S. Gottlieb presents a brave new account

Roger S. Gottlieb is internationally known for his groundbreaking studies of religious environmentalism, passionate account of spirituality in an age of environmental crisis, and enlightening vision of the role of religion in a democratic society. Political and Spiritual brings together for the first time his most powerful essays on these and related themes. The book's wealth of topics includes spiritual deep ecology, ethical theory, animal rights, the Holocaust, the environmental crisis, and the experience of disability-as well as new essays on the human meaning of technology, facing death, and a fascinating intellectual autobiography. As a whole, Political and Spiritual reveals Gottlieb's unique ability to connect our collective struggles for a just, rational, and caring society with our personal strivings for contentment, wisdom, and compassion.

Contents:
Preface and acknowledgements Introduction: Religion in an age of environmental crisis Introduction to the second edition: Good news/bad news Part I: The moment of seeing: Selections from nature writers linking nature and spirit Part II: How have traditional religions viewed nature? Part III: Ecotheology in an age of environmental crisis: Transforming tradition Part IV: Ecotheology in an age of environmental crisis: Ecofeminist spirituality Part V: Ecotheology in an age of environmental crisis: Spiritual deep ecology Part VI: Religious practice for a sacred earth Part VII: Ecology, religion and society Suggestions for further reading Websites on religion and the environment Environmental organisations About the contributors

First Published in 1992. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor and Francis, an informa company.

"The Ecological Community" offers important and previously unexplored responses to the environmental crisis. "The premise of this volume," writes editor Roger Gottlieb, "is that the environmental crisis challenges the presuppositions of--and creates a rich field of creative work in--philosophy, politics, and moral theory." These eighteen essays are fresh and compelling interrogations of the existing wisdom in a host of areas, including liberalism, communicative ethics, rights theory and environmental philosophy itself.
"Contributors": Avner de-Shalit, Gus diZerega, Roger S. Gottlieb, Eric Katz, Robert Kirkman, Andrew Light, Brian Luke, David Macauley, Mark A. Michael, Carl Mitcham, John O'Neill, Holmes Rolston III, David Schlosberg, William Throop, Steven Vogel, Mark I. Wallace, Peter S. Wenz, Michael E. Zimmerman.

In the last two decades a new form of religiously motivated social action and a virtually new field of academic study-each based in recognition of the connections between religion and humanity's treatment of the environment-have developed. Interactions between religion and environmental concern have been manifest in the explosive growth of ecotheological writings, institutional commitment by organized religions, and environmental activism explicitly oriented to religious ideals. Clergy throughout the world in virtually every denomination have received word from leaders of their religion that the environment-no less than sexuality, poverty, or war and peace-is now a basic and compelling religious matter. Out of this confrontation have been born vital new theologies based in the recovery of marginalized elements of tradition, profound criticisms of the past, and ecologically oriented visions of God, the Sacred, the Earth, and human beings. Theologians from every religious tradition-along with dozens of non-denominational spiritual writers-have confronted world religions' past attitudes towards nature. In the realm of institutional commitment, public statements and actions by organized religions have grown dramatically. In the context of political action, throughout the U.S. and the world religiously oriented groups take part in environmentally oriented political action: from lobbying and consciousness raising to activist demonstrations and civil disobedience. This collection serves as a comprehensive introduction, overview, and in-depth account of these exciting new developments. The four volumes cover virtually every aspect of the field-from theological change and institutional commitment to innovation in liturgy, from new ecumenical connections among different religions and between religion, science and environmental movements, from religious participation in environmental politics to an account of the global social and political contexts in which religious environmentalism has unfolded.

Roger S. Gottlieb is internationally known for his groundbreaking studies of religious environmentalism, passionate account of spirituality in an age of environmental crisis, and enlightening vision of the role of religion in a democratic society. Political and Spiritual brings together for the first time his most powerful essays on these and related themes. The book's wealth of topics includes spiritual deep ecology, ethical theory, animal rights, the Holocaust, the environmental crisis, and the experience of disability-as well as new essays on the human meaning of technology, facing death, and a fascinating intellectual autobiography. As a whole, Political and Spiritual reveals Gottlieb's unique ability to connect our collective struggles for a just, rational, and caring society with our personal strivings for contentment, wisdom, and compassion.

With clarity, humor, detailed scholarship, and passionate eloquence, Roger S. Gottlieb uses a unique range of resources to portray a spiritual path keyed to caring for the earth. This personal and powerful book speaks to anyone who has ever wondered how to be happy when there is so much suffering in the world-anyone who seeks a peaceful heart in a dark time. Its unique combination of spiritual insight, political commitment, and environmental knowledge reveals the deep ties between spiritual aspiration and ecological activism; and makes a critical contribution to both environmentalism and religious studies. Gottlieb begins by describing the gifts which spirituality offers, and how those gifts cannot be realized if we flee into avoidance or denial in the face of ecological peril. In a startling and compelling comparison between the Holocaust and the environmental crisis, he shows how a psychic dependence on "work" can lead us-even against our wills-to take part in genocide or ecocide. Addressing questions about our obligations to the earth, he deepens our understanding of what it is to live an "environmentally correct" life and what we really mean by "nature." Finally, by connecting personal fulfillment to social activism, he shows how a truly peaceful heart is only possible if we devote some of our energies to resisting the forces of destruction.

The environmental crisis creates an unprecedented moral predicament: how to be a good person when our collective and individual actions contribute to immeasurable devastation and suffering. Drawing on an extraordinary range of sources from philosophy, political theory, global religion, ecology, and contemporary spirituality, Roger S. Gottlieb explores the ethical ambiguities, challenges, and opportunities we face. Engagingly written, intellectually rigorous, and forcefully argued, this volume investigates the moral value of nature; the possibility of an 'ecological' democracy; how we treat animals; the demands and limits of individual responsibility and collective political change; contemporary ambiguities of rationality; and how to face environmental despair. In Morality and the Environmental Crisis, Gottlieb combines compassion for the difficulties of contemporary moral life with an unflinching ethical commitment to awareness and action.

Did Martin Luther King's spiritual understanding of political struggle truly help the Civil Rights movement? Can breast cancer victims incorporate both spiritual wisdom "and" political action in their fight for life? Confronting questions that challenge the foundations of both politics and spirituality, Roger S. Gottlieb presents a brave new account of how religious ethics and progressive movements share a common vision of a transformed world. In doing so, he offers a bold and eloquent affirmation: that authentic religion requires an activist, transforming presence in the political world, and that the moral and psychological insights of religion are indispensable resources in political struggles for democracy, human rights and ecological sanity. With original and compelling interpretations of Martin Luther King and the civil rights struggle, feminism, disability rights, the global environmental movement, and the fight for breast cancer, "Joining Hands" will alter the way spiritual seekers, political activists, and society as a whole think about the political role of religion and the spiritual component of politics.

The environmental crisis creates an unprecedented moral predicament: how to be a good person when our collective and individual actions contribute to immeasurable devastation and suffering. Drawing on an extraordinary range of sources from philosophy, political theory, global religion, ecology, and contemporary spirituality, Roger S. Gottlieb explores the ethical ambiguities, challenges, and opportunities we face. Engagingly written, intellectually rigorous, and forcefully argued, this volume investigates the moral value of nature; the possibility of an 'ecological' democracy; how we treat animals; the demands and limits of individual responsibility and collective political change; contemporary ambiguities of rationality; and how to face environmental despair. In Morality and the Environmental Crisis, Gottlieb combines compassion for the difficulties of contemporary moral life with an unflinching ethical commitment to awareness and action.

This practical, easy-to-use teacher's guide contains nine hands-on workshops on Baha'i Public Speaking. It is designed to prepare Baha'is of all ages with the skills and qualities needed to become more effective teachers of the Faith. Participants will learn to speak clearly and with confidence-from the kitchen table to the conference hall. Communicate effectively, whether giving a fireside, sharing a Feast report, telling stories at a Holy Day celebration, offering a prayer at a devotional gathering, teaching a children's class, presenting materials to public officials, speaking at a large event, or talking with family members during a home visit. Using a step-by-step approach, participants will learn to stand up with courage in front of a group, speak with a strong clear voice, research the Baha'i Writings, memorize selected passages, answer questions about the Faith, give short fireside talks, and develop their own speaking style. Complete with copy-ready student handouts, each lesson includes: * Warm-up activities * Speaking tips * Practice exercises * Homework assignment Baha'i Public Speaking is a great resource for junior youth groups and campus clubs. Local Assemblies will also find it to be a useful tool for seeker response representatives and public information officers. Opportunities to share Baha'i passages and speak directly about the Faith are multiplying. Be prepared

The Baha'i Writings state that "the education and training of children is among the most meritorious acts of humankind." Filled with fun, hands-on, kid-tested learning activities, this theme book is the third in a series of easy-to-use teacher's guides designed for Baha'i children's classes. Inside you will find a treasure trove of ideas for Baha'i summer and winter schools, Holy Day programs, academic classrooms, home schoolers and weekend retreats. The book has four sections: * The Bab: His Birth, Early Life and Station * Declaration of the Bab * Martyrdom of the Bab * The Primal Point The index at the back of the book makes it easy to find exactly what you need. Choose from stories, songs, crafts, games, puzzles, memory quotes, felt lessons, demonstrations, map exercises, student worksheets, discussion starters, group research projects, a treasure hunt, a reader's theater and much more.

The Baha'i Writings state that "the education and training of children is among the most meritorious acts of humankind." Filled with fun, hands-on, kid-tested learning activities, this theme book is the first in a series of easy-to-use teacher's guides designed for Baha'i children's classes. Inside you will find a treasure trove of ideas for Baha'i summer and winter schools, Holy Day programs, academic classrooms, home schoolers and weekend retreats. The book has four sections: * The Kingdoms of Creation * God, the Creator * Prayer, Our Connection with God * What is a Human Being? The index at the back of the book makes it easy to find exactly what you need. Choose from readings and stories, demonstrations, crafts, songs, games, felt lessons, discussion starters, memory quotes, word puzzles, outdoor and movement activities, thinking and meditation exercises, a quiz show and more.

The concept of spirituality permeates modern culture: from academic book series on ''Classics of Western Spirituality'' to self-help manuals, from the use of Buddhist mindfulness meditation (typically detached from Buddhist religious teachings) in medical treatment to "nature spirituality," from spiritually oriented peace activists to spiritually oriented new age music. Spirituality has become a common part of our cultural vocabulary. It is not only an important concept in its own right but plays productive and significant roles in the realms of psychology, ecology, medicine, and even politics. Millions call themselves "spiritual but not religious," academics describe much of contemporary religious life in the U.S. as focused on a spiritually oriented "seeking," and a quick search on Amazon.com turns up hundreds of books whose titles take the general form of The Spirituality of X or Spirituality and Y. At the same time, the concept is used in widely conflicting, often confusing ways. Most people think they know what it is when they see it, but attempts to define spirituality or understand it coherently are frequently limited, distorted, or ahistorical. Roger Gottlieb provides a lucid and accessible overview of what spirituality is, enabling readers to gain a clear-eyed understanding of the concept, its manifold connections to other aspects of personal and social life, its role as a positive psychological and social phenomenon, and some of the risks that attend it. The book combines thoughtful analysis with a generally sympathetic perspective in which spirituality is viewed as a potentially beneficial form of personal identity and practice, and a possible antidote to a number of the psychic ailments and social pathologies of contemporary society.

The Baha'i Writings state that "the education and training of children is among the most meritorious acts of humankind." Filled with fun, hands-on, kid-tested learning activities, this theme book is the fifth in a series of easy-to-use teacher's guides designed for Baha'i children's classes. Inside you will find a treasure trove of ideas for Baha'i summer and winter schools, Holy Day programs, academic classrooms, home schoolers and weekend retreats. The book has four sections: * The Power of Unity * Unity in Diversity * The Colors We Are * Overcoming Prejudice The index at the back of the book makes it easy to find exactly what you need. Choose from stories, songs, crafts, outdoor games, puzzles, memory quotes, felt lessons, demonstrations, student worksheets, discussion starters, poetry, role plays, a mini opera and much more.

The Baha'i Writings state that "the education and training of children is among the most meritorious acts of humankind." Filled with fun, hands-on, kid-tested learning activities, this theme book is the fourth in a series of easy-to-use teacher's guides designed for Baha'i children's classes. Inside you will find a treasure trove of ideas for Baha'i summer and winter schools, Holy Day programs, academic classrooms, home schoolers and weekend retreats. The book has four sections: * The Birth of Baha'u'llah, His Early Life and Station * Declaration of Baha'u'llah * Exiles and Imprisonment * Clouds of Glory The index at the back of the book makes it easy to find exactly what you need. Choose from stories, songs, crafts, games, puzzles, felt lessons, map activities, memory quotes, demonstrations, role plays, creative writing, simulations of the Black Pit and Baha'u'llah's walk to Baghdad, a quiz show and much more.

This unique anthology brings together readings from the works of the most significant post-Leninist Marxist thinkers. The selections reflect the diversity and high intellectual accomplishment of twentieth-century Marxism and show how these theorists have transformed traditional Marxism's general philosophical orientation, interpretation of historical materialism, models of socialist political practice, and conception of human liberation. The writings reveal the evolution of a sophisticated and democratic Marxism with a theoretical emphasis on class consciousness and subjectivity, a resistance to all forms of domination--including sexism--and a belief in the political power of consciousness-raising.
The selections include the work of forerunners Karl Korsch, George Lukacs, and Antonio Gramsci; figures from the 1930s, including Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, and Wilhelm Reich; post-war and New Left thinkers Jean-Paul Sartre, Andre Gorz, Herbert Marcuse, and Jurgen Habermas; and contemporary socialist-feminists Sheila Rowbotham, Juliet Mitchell, Barbara Ehrenreich, Heidi Hartmann, and Ann Ferguson. Gottlieb places the readings in historical and theoretical context, providing a clear and insightful account of the intellectual problems and historical events that gave rise to the Western Marxism, and describing how it both anticipated and influenced contemporary radical movements. Each selection is prefaced by a biographical sketch and the book concludes with a bibliography suggesting further research."