The Worldview of Redemptive Violence in the US


Book Description

Through US military history, Lavender directly confronts the dominant US viewpoint of redemptive violence, the concept that a nation can use its military to improve the human condition. Alternatives are presented in order to encourage the current recessive worldview that supports conflict resolution, cooperation, collaboration and peaceful efforts.




The Worldview of Redemptive Violence in the US


Book Description

Through US military history, Lavender directly confronts the dominant US viewpoint of redemptive violence, the concept that a nation can use its military to improve the human condition. Alternatives are presented in order to encourage the current recessive worldview that supports conflict resolution, cooperation, collaboration and peaceful efforts.




Engaging the Powers


Book Description

In this brilliant culmination of his seminal Powers Trilogy, now reissued in a twenty-fifth anniversary edition, Walter Wink explores the problem of evil today and how it relates to the New Testament concept of principalities and powers. He asks the question, "How can we oppose evil without creating new evils and being made evil ourselves?" Winner of the Pax Christi Award, the Academy of Parish Clergy Book of the Year, and the Midwest Book Achievement Award for Best Religious Book.




Rebuild Your Worldview to be Healthy


Book Description

Our world has been maintaining a destructive path for humankind with our continued use of force to resolve human issues. We are continuing to move downhill toward greater violence. To stop violence, we must build healthier personal and social worldviews. A quest for the truth beyond the self, community, and our worldviews needs to be implemented. We will need to improve our ability to think rationally. Most of all, we will need to learn how to intelligently use God's gift of freedom. Since our personal worldviews are our standards of reference for truth for designing and building our worldviews, we can only reach for and estimate the truth through non-threatening dialogue. We have been conditioned to forcefully defend fixed worldviews, which are not healthy. Healthier worldviews are needed to implement non-violent, intentional change to the worldviews of every individual, every organization, every community, and every dominating system. Healthier worldviews would lead to an integrated translormatiun of science, religion, education, and government. All worldviews need to be more inclusive of relevant information and be internally consistent. They need to represent the truth of reality as well as the truth in reality. Each personal worldview is that person's standard of reference for truth, whenever that person makes a decision. We tend to fix our worldviews with claims of certainty, rather than stable assumptions of truth. Such fixed standards are not adequate to bring peace to this world. We must learn to intentionally look beyond these fixed standards to estimate and seek the truth of what those worldviews ought to be in the future. No information should be seen as value free and independent of morality. We all use our personal worldviews when making moral decisions. Our worldviews all need to change periodically in order to incorporate continuing non-violent intentional change to our beliefs and values. A meaningful worldview builds a representation of reality upon a set of assumptions of truth. Reason demands non-contradiction, but it cannot promise a healthy worldview. This book shows how to make them healthy. Comments or questions about the book? Email the author at [email protected] or check out his website http://changeworldview.blogspot.com.




Politicization of Religion, the Power of State, Nation, and Faith


Book Description

(Ab)use of religion as a political means to an end: the achievement of nationalist political goals, analyzing 'how' through which mechanisms this phenomenon has been and still is practiced in South-Eastern Europe.




Understanding African American Rhetoric


Book Description

This is an extraordinarily well-balanced collection of essays focused on varied expressions of African American Rhetoric; it also is a critical antidote to a preoccupation with Western Rhetoric as the arbiter of what counts for effective rhetoric. Rather than impose Western terminology on African and African American rhetoric, the essays in this volume seek to illumine rhetoric from within its own cultural expression, thereby creating an understanding grounded in the culture's values. The consequence is a richly detailed and well-researched set of essays. The contribution of African American rhetoric can no longer be rendered invisible through neglect of its tradition. The essays in this volume neither seek to displace Western Rhetoric, nor function as an uncritical paen to Afrocentricity and Africology. This volume is both timely and essential; timely in advancing a better understanding of the richly textured history that is expressed through African American discourse, and essential as a counterpoint to the hegemonic influence of Greek and Roman rhetoric as the origin of rhetorical theory and practice. Written in the spirit of a critical rhetoric, this collection eschews traditional focus on public address and instead offers a rich array of texts, in musical and other forms, that address publics.




Enigmas and Powers


Book Description

Enigmas and Powers is a celebration and engagement of the work of the noted author, biblical scholar, peace activist, pastor, speaker, and workshop leader, Walter Wink. Among Wink's numerous influential works are The Human Being: Jesus and the Enigma of the Son of the Man, The Bible in Human Transformation, Homosexuality and Christian Faith, Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way, and The Powers trilogy (Naming the Powers, Unmasking the Powers, and Engaging the Powers). This is the only volume devoted to responses by Walter's colleagues and students to the entire range of his work and its vast impact across disciplines, from biblical studies to peace studies, from theology to psychology. You hold in your hands an unusual book. In it you will find essays, letters, speeches, prayers, toasts, reminiscences, arguments, footnotes, and open-ended conversation. You will find addressed--and by addressed, I mean that the authors are variously talking to these persons/entities--God; the Spirit; Psyche; Walter Wink the person; Walter Wink the essay, book, theory, method, and/or argument(s); and finally, and throughout, you, the reader. Most of all, you will find, I hope, truth. Or, at least, meaningful, productive, and enticing approaches toward truth itself, and toward the world in light of truth. --from the introduction




Seeking Justice


Book Description

“Cause us trouble Keith, but not too much trouble,” these were final words of advice from a bishop to a new curate the day before his ordination. This book is the result of much reflection on that advice. Keith Hebden, parish priest and spiritual activist brings action and theory together with ideas that are as practical, accessible and exciting as the activism they underwrite. Beginning with the conviction that Jesus was an activist who was deeply committed to community, this book seeks to explore ways in which each of us can challenge the unjust structures that keep us from realising our full and common humanity. Seeking Justice is a timely reminder of our need to face up to our personal ability to change the world we live in and the urgency of the task ahead. ,




Transforming Worldviews


Book Description

In the past, changes in behavior and in belief have been leading indicators for missionaries that Christian conversion had occurred. But these alone--or even together--are insufficient for a gospel understanding of conversion. For effective biblical mission, Paul G. Hiebert argues, we must add a third element: a change in worldview. Here he offers a comprehensive study of worldview--its philosophy, its history, its characteristics, and the means for understanding it. He then provides a detailed analysis of several worldviews that missionaries must engage today, addressing the impact of each on Christianity and mission. A biblical worldview is outlined for comparison. Finally, Hiebert argues for gospel ministry that seeks to transform people's worldviews and offers suggestions for how to do so.




The Ecology of Violent Extremism


Book Description

The Ecology of Violent Extremism brings together leading theorists and practitioners to describe an ecological or systems approach to violent extremism. Nothing can be fixed until it is understood. News media keep us alarmed to the close--‐up devastation of acts of terrorism. This book climbs a ladder to get a better view of the problem. What is beneath and beyond violent extremism? How do we respond to the problem of violent extremism in ways that do not fertilize the root causes that fueled it in the first place? While many books offer one or two hypotheses for preventing terrorism, this book gives readers the tools to look at the problem from many different angles. The book offers a “map of violent extremism” drawing connections between twenty--‐five factors that correlate with violent extremism (VE). On a spectrum, counterterrorism seeks to disrupt, detain, and destroy terrorist plans and networks. P/CVE seeks to prevent and counter the belief systems that support violent extremism. Peacebuilding addresses the longer--‐term factors and root causes driving VE. An ecological approach to VE recognizes that interventions also interact with each other. For example, some approaches to counterterrorism also motivate further recruitment to VE groups and undermine peacebuilding interventions. Readers finish the book recognizing the debates within the very definition of violent extremism, and understanding a broader paradigm for how we understand and respond to violent extremist beliefs and acts of terror.