Lisa Sowle Cahill

A Field Guide to Christian Nonviolence

Theology

“With unusual nuance and insight, Cramer and Werntz identify eight forms of Christian nonviolence, bringing to life its ecclesial and spiritual depth. They also magnify the political and transformative voice of nonviolence, illustrating how its inspiration and effects reach far beyond the church. A new and important note for standard accounts of Christian pacifism resounds in the chapter on Christian antiviolence. This creative yet historically grounded volume is a valuable addition to the war and peace literature, easily accessible and captivating to students, yet with an originality that will take theological scholarship on nonviolence into new territory.”

An Examined Faith

Theology

“In this work, America's senior Protestant ethicist continues his trenchant critique of feel-good religion, naive consolation, self-serving piety, and tribalistic churches. Taking a hard look at history, science, and the darker corners of human experience, Gustafson challenges believers of every faith to resist platitudes and confront the reality of divine sovereignty, as well as the contingency of the human condition. The result is an iconoclastic but faith-filled, moving testimony to Gustafson's pastoral honesty and deeply theocentric convictions. No religious believer can afford to ignore his questions.”

At the Limits of the Secular

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“William Barbieri here convenes notables in philosophy, theology, and the social sciences to address a quandary on the minds of many in modern Western societies: What does religion have to do with 'secular' public and political life? Together these authors show that religion is alive and well, and is already contributing productively to the renewal of civil society and of political participation in a renegotiated and newly hospitable 'secular' sphere. Readers will learn immensely and gain widened vision from the timely content and superb intellectual quality of this effort.”

Becoming Nonviolent Peacemakers

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“This is an excellent book. It is highly original and intellectually precise, while remaining grounded in the Christian life and passion for social change. McCarthy cuts across standard divisions of just war theory and pacifism to create a public and political peacemaking ethic of virtue for an era in which Christian action for global justice is not optional.”

Bible and Ethics in the Christian Life

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“Through the power of the Holy Spirit in the church—that is how this eloquent book frames both Bible and ethics. These authors proclaim a creative and dynamic ethics as most faithful to Scripture itself. Only such an ethics can provide a "radical alternative" to the individual and structural sin displayed in myriad ways across our global environment. Their powerful vision of Christian ethics will inspire students and scholars to more fully recognize the gospel's transformative social potential.”

Christian Ethics

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“Hak Joon Lee’s ‘new covenant ethics’ is an ecumenically oriented and politically constructive evangelical tour de force. While he places the Trinity and Eucharist at the center, he includes nonviolence, community organizing, and just peacemaking among Christianity’s constitutive practices. On debated moral questions like same-sex marriage, Lee favors moderate conservatism, yet wisely counsels traditionalists and revisionists to apply a peacemaking ethos to their own coexistence. More importantly, this is an ethics centered on justice and the poor. The cosmic presence of the Spirit gives the new covenant world-spanning, inclusive transformative power. This would be a wonderful book to work through with a seminary class or a congregational study group.”

Contemplating the Future of Moral Theology

Theology

“Brian Johnstone is a longstanding colleague of many in our field, and a respected, careful, and judicious interpreter of moral theology. This volume conveys his insights from the Vatican II era into a new global context, showing their continuing power and relevance in the twenty-first century. Global North and South, Rome and local churches, clerical and lay moralists, moralists and ordinary Catholics--as Charles Curran says in his foreword, dialogue is key. This book demonstrates that truth, and Johnstone's embodiment of it.”

Created Freedom under the Sign of the Cross

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“DeCosse offers an American Catholic political theology that shows why ‘the land of the free’ is really not, and why true freedom takes more than ‘choices’ among too few options. This is a masterful and clear analysis of today’s most influential economic and political theories; and how the Catholic social vision of embodied, grounded, and relational freedom challenges and transcends them all.”

Disciplined by Race

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“Disciplined by Race is provocative and challenging—also personal, eloquent, and inspiring. White people may recognize our culture of ‘white supremacy,’ but fail to ‘get’ how it really works. Obvious ‘anti-blackness’ feeds off the myth of a ‘model minority’ that homogenizes and distances Asian-Americans. Choi calls to all marginalized by whiteness, calls out white ‘tolerance,’ and calls forth a new kind of solidarity against our country’s entrenched racism. A unique and powerful book!”

Ethics and Advocacy

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“Today, ‘everyone knows’ that theology always comes out of and returns to a sociopolitical context. But, as Ethics and Advocacy shows, whether and how theology should advocate for contextual reforms is a contested and divisive question. . . . No matter which side of the debate you incline toward, this collection sheds light on roles we fulfill every day without always being clear on their connections.”

Evangelical Ethics

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“Nonevangelicals will gain great insight and some surprises from Evangelical Ethics -if they think of evangelical Christians as the conservative white culture-warriors of the Christian right. To the contrary, Gushee and Sharp present us with powerful voices, going back to the nineteenth century, who espouse progressive cultural reform and social activism on behalf of the gospel. These include Baptist, Anabaptist, Mennonite, Wesleyan, black, and even feminist stances. This book does more than advance evangelical history; it surfaces an important strand of American social ethics, familiarity with which is essential to an informed and effective Christian politics today.”

Gathered for the Journey

Theology

“This collection offers the important voices of emerging young scholars who bring fresh perspectives on a traditional discipline. They show that 'moral theology' is as much about a way of life as about analysis of problems. Readers of Gathered for the Journey will see what it takes to energize Catholic teaching for a new generation. The originality of the contributions makes them essential reading for the scholar; their timeliness and practicality match them perfectly to classroom use.”

If Jesus Is Lord

Theology

“Sider’s sophisticated and coherent case for Christian pacifism magnifies its intellectual as well as existential appeal. War, like sin, may never be abolished. But, as Sider so eloquently argues, nonviolent resistance in the name of Jesus Christ can instigate change by enlivening the gospel with grace and power against the violence of our times.”

Integral Human Development

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“This book is a game-changer for Catholic social ideals such as personal dignity, the common good, and integral development. And it confronts two big questions facing political activism everywhere: How can we get from high-minded ideals and sound-bytes to practical action that will make a difference? And what action can be effective in our fragmented global environment, where no one body has moral command, legal authority, or enforcement power? We have Azetsop's social science expertise and his religiously inspired vision of human solidarity to thank for this unique gathering of creative experts. Their exchanges are a wellspring of new and better strategies toward economic and ecological justice.”

John Howard Yoder

Theology

“This engaging treatment illumines Yoder's key role in twentieth-century social ethics, while demonstrating that he should remain pivotal for the pressing questions of the twenty-first, from Christology, to war, to the public role of the church and interreligious dialogue. Two chapters on Yoder's sorry history of sexual harassment are models for confronting the sins of the church and its members, while remaining respectful of and faithful to the gospel witness that even sinners can provide. This work will be essential for scholars and students of Christian social ethics.”

Loving Creation

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“Loving Creation puts biblical themes together in an entirely original and uniquely insightful way, joining theology and ethics in a new vision for the Christian life. Gary Chartier's 'creational love ethic' overcomes several time-worn and troublesome dichotomies: Old Testament vs. New Testament, sacrificial love vs. human flourishing, Protestant love command vs. Catholic natural law, and the neighbor who needs our care vs. the all-sufficient God. Chartier's comprehensive and fair-minded approach makes this an exceptional introduction to key topics in Scripture, theology, and applied ethics. A wonderful springboard for theological discussion and learning!”

Moral Theology

Theology

“A hard-hitting critique form a third world perspective . . . . The authors rightfully challenge the reigning 'idolatries' of power, money, technology, pleasure, and superiority. Pressing beyond Marxism and capitalism, Moser and Leers offer a nuanced and inspiring alternative, shaped around biblically-derived principles of incarnation, praxis, and solidarity. They argue very effectively that although Jesus was no social reformer in the modern sense, his ministry has radical social implications.”

Reforming a Theology of Gender

Theology

“Patterson offers a unique, creative, and boundary-breaking engagement with the avant-garde gender theorist Judith Butler; yet he remains thoroughly biblical and Christocentric. . . . This is a generous book, a boundary breaker and a bridge builder. . . . It is full of wisdom for scholars and advanced students of theology open to new ways of conceptualizing what it is that they believe.”

Religion and Medical Ethics

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“This collection gathers some of the most important voices in the emergence of bioethics as a theological field. . . . Highlighting the difference religious commitment makes, this book brings forward and nuances the matter of theology's relevance to policy debates.”

Reproduction and the Common Good

Theology

“This is a highly original collection, and an urgently needed one! Abortion controversies often are driven by local cultures, religions, politics, and laws. But ethics demands a broader perspective. The authors who gather here expand the horizons across women’s diverse experiences, while revealing common ground. An important example of how to do Christian ethics today!”