Ambassadors of Reconciliation: Diverse Christian practices of restorative justice and peacemaking

Ambassadors of Reconciliation: Diverse Christian practices of restorative justice and peacemaking
Author: Ched Myers
Publisher: Orbis Books
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2009
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1608331369

Restorative justice refers to a social movement that seeks to repair interpersonal, communal, and social injustices without recourse to violence or retribution. Volume two analyzes the contemporary terrain of restorative justice and peacemaking in North America and profiles the exemplary work of nine practitioners who incarnate the scriptural vision in real life contexts of profound violence and injustice.

Restorative Christ

Restorative Christ
Author: Geoff Broughton
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2015-01-02
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1630877484

The conviction that Jesus is the restorative Christ demands a commitment to the justice he articulated. The justice of the restorative Christ is justice with reconciliation, justice with repentance, justice with repair, and justice without retaliation. The Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts portray the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ through the radical concept of "enemy-love." In conversation with Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Jesus-for-others), John Howard Yoder (a nonviolent Jesus), Miroslav Volf (an embracing Jesus), and Chris Marshall (a compassionate Jesus), Broughton demonstrates what the restorative Christ means for us today. Following the restorative Christ faithfully involves imaginative disciplines (seeing, remembering, and desiring), conversational disciplines (naming, questioning, and forgiving), and embodied disciplines (absorbing, repairing, and embracing).

Dear White Christians

Dear White Christians
Author: Jennifer Harvey
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 417
Release: 2020-07-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1467459615

“If reconciliation is the takeaway point for the civil rights story we usually tell, then the takeaway point for the more complex, more truthful civil rights story contained in Dear White Christians is reparations.” — from the preface to the second edition With the troubling and painful events of the last several years—from the killing of numerous unarmed Black men and women at the hands of police to the rallying of white supremacists in Charlottesville—it is clearer than ever that the reconciliation paradigm, long favored by white Christians, has failed to heal the deep racial wounds in the church and American society. In this provocative book, originally published in 2014, Jennifer Harvey argues for a radical shift away from the well-meaning but feeble longing for reconciliation toward a robustly biblical call for reparations. Now in its second edition—with a new preface addressing the explosive changes in American culture and politics since 2014, as well as an appendix that explores what a reparations paradigm can actually look like—Dear White Christians calls justice-committed Christians to do the gospel-inspired work of opposing racist social structures around them. Harvey’s message is historically and scripturally rooted, making it ideal for facilitating the difficult but important discussions about race that are so desperately needed in churches and faith-centered classrooms across the country.

Introduction to Christian Ethics

Introduction to Christian Ethics
Author: Ellen Ott Marshall
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2018-10-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1611648904

All Christians read the Bible differently, pray differently, value their traditions differently, and give different weight to individual and corporate judgment. These differences are the basis of conflict. The question Christian ethics must answer, then, is, "What does the good life look like in the context of conflict?" In this new introductory text, Ellen Ott Marshall uses the inevitable reality of difference to center and organize her exploration of the system of Christian morality. What can we learn from Jesus' creative use of conflict in situations that were especially attuned to questions of power? What does the image of God look like when we are trying to recognize the divine image within those with whom we are in conflict? How can we better explore and understand the complicated work of reconciliation and justice? This innovative approach to Christian ethics will benefit a new generation of students who wish to engage the perennial questions of what constitutes a faithful Christian life and a just society.

Becoming the Gospel

Becoming the Gospel
Author: Michael J. Gorman
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 351
Release: 2015-05-06
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1467442984

The first detailed exegetical treatment of Paul’s letters from the emerging discipline of missional hermeneutics, Michael Gorman’s Becoming the Gospel argues that Paul’s letters invite Christian communities both then and now to not merely believe the gospel but to become the gospel and, in doing so, to participate in the life and mission of God. Showing that Pauline churches were active public participants in and witnesses to the gospel, Gorman reveals the missional significance of various themes in Paul’s letters. He also identifies select contemporary examples of mission in the spirit of Paul, inviting all Christians to practice Paul-inspired imagination in their own contexts.

The Blackwell Companion to Religion and Violence

The Blackwell Companion to Religion and Violence
Author: Andrew R. Murphy
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 554
Release: 2011-04-20
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1444395734

The timely Blackwell Companion to Religion and Violence brings together an international, interdisciplinary group of scholars who provide a coherent state of the art overview of the complex relationships between religion and violence. This companion tackles one of the most important topics in the field of Religion in the twenty-first century, pulling together a unique collection of cutting-edge work A focused collection of high-quality scholarship provides readers with a state-of-the-art account of the latest work in this field The contributors are broad-ranging, international, and interdisciplinary, and include historians, political scientists, religious studies scholars, sociologists, anthropologists, theologians, scholars of women's and gender studies and communication

SCM Studyguide: Church Leadership

SCM Studyguide: Church Leadership
Author: Jon Coutts
Publisher: SCM Press
Total Pages: 146
Release: 2019-04-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0334057787

It is increasingly being acknowledged that current generation of church leaders are inundated with well-intentioned but nonetheless economically-defined leadership measures and strategies which threaten to corrupt the basic thrust of ministry and pervert the common life known as church. Reflecting theologically on the nature of leadership at the same time as considering the reality of its practicalities, this Study Guide seeks to call it back to theological essentials, locate it in the unique context of the Church, and then re-address modern pressures and needs from within a decidedly Christian framework. Resisting the urge to instruct with a more polemical voice, the SCM Studyguide to Church Leadership will encourage ordinands and trainee church leaders to reassess modern pressures and priorities and to re-orient creatively around the callings, giftings, and approaches that are suitable to Christ and particular to the Church.

Becoming Nonviolent Peacemakers

Becoming Nonviolent Peacemakers
Author: Eli Sasaran McCarthy
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2012-07-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1610971132

Why do many U.S. residents, Catholics and Catholic leaders among them, too often fall short of adequately challenging the use of violence in U.S. policy? The opportunities and developments in approaches to peacemaking have been growing at a significant rate. However, violent methods continue to hold significant sway in U.S. policy and society as the commonly assumed way to "peace." Even when community organizers, policymakers, members of Catholic leadership, and academics sincerely search for alternatives to violence, they too often think about nonviolence as primarily a rule or a strategy. Catholic Social Teaching has been moving toward transcending the limits of these approaches, but it still has significant room for growth. In order to contribute to this growth and to impact U.S. policy, McCarthy draws on Jesus, Gandhi, Ghaffar Khan, and King to offer a virtue-based approach to nonviolent peacemaking with a corresponding set of core practices. This approach is also set in conversation with aspects of human rights discourse to increase its possible impact on U.S. policy. As a whole, Becoming Nonviolent Peacemakers offers an important challenge to contemporary accounts of peacemaking in the U.S.

"Come Out My People!"

Author: Wes Howard-Brook
Publisher: Orbis Books
Total Pages: 545
Release: 2010
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1608331547

A compelling view of two competing religious visions---one of "creation" and the other of "empire"---that run throughout the Bible. "A remarkable offering for those who care about the interface of power and faith with all the threats and seductions that go with it. . . As I read, I felt overwhelmed, both by the mass of data and by the cunning of interpretation. I could not put it down, and expect to continue to be instructed by it.---Walter Brueggemann "Howard-Brook undertakes what few dare anymore: an introductory primer for the whole Bible...This book invites disciples to `connect the dots', in order to recover our ancient, anti-imperial identity, and to embrace a radical faith and practice that are personal and politica."---Ched Myers "Howard-Brook illuminates how ancient empires exercised control and manipulation of people not simply by political and military means, but also through the religion of empire. Throughout he makes clear that the core message of the God of creation is to call people out of empire, to refuse to cooperate with the forces of destruction and domination today."---Richard Horsley "Will become a classic for communities that seek first to receive the gracious gift of God's alternative future to Empire."---Jarrod McKenna "If we who sojourn in America are to be a community that can both name and resist the lure of Empire, we need a story more powerful than the story called America. Wes Howard-Brook knows than the Bible tells such a story. May its story be ours as we're set free from our imperial imaginations to dream with our Creator of a new world here and now."---Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove