Theology and Urban Sustainability

Theology and Urban Sustainability
Author: Zaheer Allam
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 83
Release: 2019-09-11
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3030296733

Even though theology does provide interesting and important contributions to ethics that laid the foundation of our modern societies, this book looks at exploring how theology has impacted on urban morphology and has led to questionable unsustainable practices which impacts on both climate and societal living standards. This is seen as being accelerated with the impacts of climate change coupled with increasing urbanisation rates that stresses on contemporary notions and foundations, as initially sparked by religion. Through an argumentative style, the author sets forth to explore the ethics of religious dogmas in a rapidly urbanising world that is stressed by increasing consumption from a booming demographic.

Religion, Sustainability, and Place

Religion, Sustainability, and Place
Author: Steven E. Silvern
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 391
Release: 2020-12-14
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9811576467

This book explores how religious groups work to create sustainable relationships between people, places and environments. This interdisciplinary volume deepens our understanding of this relationship, revealing that the geographical imagination—our sense of place—is a key aspect of the sustainability ideas and practices of religious groups. The book begins with a broad examination of how place shapes faith-based ideas about sustainability, with examples drawn from indigenous Hawaiians and the sacred texts of Judaism and Islam. Empirical case studies from North America, Europe, Central Asia and Africa follow, illustrating how a local, bounded, and sacred sense of place informs religious-based efforts to protect people and natural resources from threatening economic and political forces. Other contributors demonstrate that a cosmopolitan geographical imagination, viewing place as extending from the local to the global, shapes the struggles of Christian, Jewish and interfaith groups to promote just and sustainable food systems and battle the climate crisis.

Green Christianity

Green Christianity
Author: Mark I Wallace
Publisher: Fortress Press
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2010-09-10
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1451413858

The central message of this book is that religion has a special role to play in saving the planet. Religion has the unique power to fire the imagination and empower the will to break the cycle of addiction to nonrenewable energy. The environmental crisis is a crisis not of the head but of the heart. The problem is not that we do not know how to stop climate change but rather that we lack the inner strength to redirect our culture and economy toward a sustainable future. Only a bold and courageous faith can undergird a long-term commitment to change. This book is a call to hope, not despair--a survey of promising directions and a call for readers to discover meaning and purpose in their lives through a spiritually charged commitment to saving the Earth.

Cities of Tomorrow and the City to Come

Cities of Tomorrow and the City to Come
Author: Noah J. Toly
Publisher: Zondervan
Total Pages: 66
Release: 2015-05-05
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0310516021

Each day, the world’s urban population swells by almost 200,000. With every passing week, more than a million people new to cities face unexpected realities and challenges of urban life. Just like the sheer volume of people in the city, these challenges can be staggering. As with the height and breadth of our metropolises, the wonders of urban life can be breathtaking. Like the city itself, the questions and challenges of urban life are both sprawling and pulsing with vitality. As part of Zondervan's Ordinary Theology series, this volume offers a series of Christian reflections on some of the most basic and universal challenges of 21st century urban life. It takes one important dimension of what it means to be human—that human beings are made to be for God, for others, and for creation—and asks, “What are the implications of who God made us to be for how we ought to live in our cities?” This book is intended for Christians facing the riddle of urban creation care, discerning the shape of community life, struggling with the challenges of wealth and poverty, and wondering at the global influence of cities. It is meant for those whose lives and livelihoods are inextricably bound up in the flourishing of their neighborhood and also for those who live in the shadow of cities. Most of all, it is meant for those grappling with the relationship between the cities of tomorrow and the glorious city to come.

Just Faith

Just Faith
Author: Stéphan De Beer
Publisher:
Total Pages: 364
Release: 2018
Genre: Church work with minorities
ISBN: 9781928396659

The purpose of this scholarly book is to expand the body of knowledge available on urban theology. It introduces readers to the concept of planetary urbanisation, with the view of deepening an understanding of urbanisation and its all-pervasive impact on the planet, people and places from a theological perspective. A critical theological reading of ‘the urban’ is also provided, deliberating on bridging the divide between voices from the Global South and the Global North. In doing so, this book simultaneously seeks out robust and dynamic faith constructs, expressed in various forms and embodiments of justice. The methodology chosen transcended narrow disciplinary boundaries, situating reflections between and across disciplines, in the interface between scholarly reflection and an activist faith, as well as between local rootedness and global connectedness. This was facilitated by the collected gathering of authors, spanning all continents, various Christian faith traditions and multiple disciplines, as well as a range of methodological approaches.The book endeavours to contribute to knowledge production in a number of ways. Firstly, it suggests the inadequacy of most dominant faith expressions in the face of all-pervasive forces of urbanisation, and it also provides clues as to the possibility of fostering potent alternative imaginaries. Secondly, it explores a decolonial faith that is expressed in various forms of justice. It is an attempt to offer concrete embodiments of what such a faith could look like in the context of planetary urbanisation. Thirdly, the book does not focus on one specific urban challenge or mode of ministry but rather introduces the concept of planetary urbanisation and then offers critical lenses with which to interrogate its consequences and challenges. It considers concrete and liberating faith constructs in areas ranging from gender, race, economic inequality, a solidarity economics and housing to urban violence, indigeneity and urbanisation, the interface between economic and environmental sustainability, and grass-roots theological education.

View from the Urban Loft

View from the Urban Loft
Author: Sean Benesh
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 211
Release: 2011-10-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1610975146

As the world hurtles towards urbanization at an ever-increasing pace, there arises the need for further theological reflection on the city. Globalization, international immigration, and densification in cities are having a transformative impact on the urban landscape. Urban mission is at the forefront of many denominations, church planting networks, ministries, and mission organizations yearning for citywide transformation. How are we to think biblically and theologically about the city? View from the Urban Loft will take readers through the development of cities throughout history, act as a guide to navigating the current forces shaping urban environments, and seek to uncover a theology of the city that gives Christians a rationale and a biblical understanding of the meaning and purposes of the city and then how to live in it for the glory of God.

Just faith

Just faith
Author: Stephan de Beer
Publisher: AOSIS
Total Pages: 398
Release: 2018-12-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1928396666

The purpose of this scholarly book is to expand the body of knowledge available on urban theology. It introduces readers to the concept of planetary urbanisation, with the view of deepening an understanding of urbanisation and its all-pervasive impact on the planet, people and places from a theological perspective. A critical theological reading of ‘the urban’ is also provided, deliberating on bridging the divide between voices from the Global South and the Global North. In doing so, this book simultaneously seeks out robust and dynamic faith constructs, expressed in various forms and embodiments of justice. The methodology chosen transcended narrow disciplinary boundaries, situating reflections between and across disciplines, in the interface between scholarly reflection and an activist faith, as well as between local rootedness and global connectedness. This was facilitated by the collected gathering of authors, spanning all continents, various Christian faith traditions and multiple disciplines, as well as a range of methodological approaches. The book endeavours to contribute to knowledge production in a number of ways. Firstly, it suggests the inadequacy of most dominant faith expressions in the face of all-pervasive forces of urbanisation, and it also provides clues as to the possibility of fostering potent alternative imaginaries. Secondly, it explores a decolonial faith that is expressed in various forms of justice. It is an attempt to offer concrete embodiments of what such a faith could look like in the context of planetary urbanisation. Thirdly, the book does not focus on one specific urban challenge or mode of ministry but rather introduces the concept of planetary urbanisation and then offers critical lenses with which to interrogate its consequences and challenges. It considers concrete and liberating faith constructs in areas ranging from gender, race, economic inequality, a solidarity economics and housing to urban violence, indigeneity and urbanisation, the interface between economic and environmental sustainability, and grass-roots theological education.

Seeking a City with Foundations

Seeking a City with Foundations
Author: David W. Smith
Publisher: Langham Publishing
Total Pages: 387
Release: 2019-03-31
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1783684984

More than half the people in the world live in cities, including a growing number of megacities with populations exceeding ten million people. This trend means that an understanding of urbanization must be an urgent priority for Christian theology and mission across the globe. This updated edition of Seeking a City with Foundations, with an additional chapter, explores Christian responses to the city, ranging from rejecting the urban as evil, to embracing it as being central to God’s redemptive purposes. Drawing from a wide range of disciplines, including history, social science, urban planning, and the history of art, readers are given a detailed text which confronts the challenges that contemporary urbanization presents to world Christianity. Looking at urbanism as a theme throughout Scripture, culminating with the great vision of the New Jerusalem, David Smith explains that God’s own future is revealed as urban, highlighting the need to identify modern-day idols as we share the gospel in cities and acknowledge the impact of global economic forces. The book also explores the causes of what has been called the divided city and traces the urban theme through the Bible to present an alternative vision of the urban future – a future in which the injustices in ever-growing slums and a crisis of meaning among the privileged might be overcome through the power of the reconciling message of the cross. This timely book proposes a way forward for urban mission, highlighting that transformation of our cities must be the focal point of Christian mission and hope.

A Theology of the Built Environment

A Theology of the Built Environment
Author: Timothy Gorringe
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 300
Release: 2002-07-11
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9780521891448

In this 2002 book, Tim Gorringe reflects theologically on the built environment as a whole.

Gospel for the Cities

Gospel for the Cities
Author: Benjamin Tonna
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 223
Release: 2004-10-28
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1592449727

Traditionally, the city has been the locus for the development of civilization. The scholars, the poets, the persons of commerce and politics came to the city for inspiration and acceptance. The city has been both an intriguing place and a place of intrigue. For weal or woe, the city fashions our culture while altering cultures. The person who wishes to analyze with competence the sociological and theological dimensions of the city would do well to study thoroughly 'Gospel for the Cities'. It is a study for us who live and work in the urban centers of North America as well as for the missionary today who must bring deep insight - biblical, historical, and sociological - to the awesome task of working in the cities of the twenty-first century across the world. We have waited long for this book. Msgr. John J. Egan, University of Notre Dame Many books have been written...about cities and urbanization. But in an era of severe compartmentalization in knowledge, they have come from specialists in one discipline. Thus, we have the sociology of the city, the city in history, or the challenge of the city to the church. Now [this unique volume] provides a genuine and compelling interface between competent social analysis and historical description with first-rate mission theology and a solid biblical perspective. This difficult task has been accomplished with depth and comprehensiveness by Benjamin Tonna in a book of particular relevance to the Third World, but useful to all of us committed to concern for the cities in God's world. George W. Webber, President, New York Theological Seminary