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From the back of the book: Liberating Faith: Religious Voices for Justice, Peace, and Ecological Wisdom. Roger S. Gottlieb, editor. Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2003. BL65 .J87 L53 This sweeping anthology shows how religion has joined with and learned from movements for social justice, peace, and ecological wisdom. It includes theology, social critique, position papers, denominational statements, manifestos, rituals, prayers, biographical accounts, and journalistic descriptions of the real-world struggles, beginning with a survey of ethical teachings from traditional sources. Containing voices from a multitude of traditions, national settings, and perspectives, this book is the definitive introduction to global religious social activism, offering a visionary alternative to both repressive fundamentalism and spiritless secularism.
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Liberating Faith This Page Intentionally Left Blank Liberating Faith Religious Voices for Justice, Peace, and Ecological Wisdom Edited by Roger S. Gottlieb R O W M A N & L I T T L E F I E L D PUBLISHERS, I N C . Lanham BouZder New York Toronto oxford ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Published in the United States of America by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowmanlittlefield.com P O Box 317 Oxford OX2 9RU. UK Copyright 0 2003 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved, No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-PublicationData Liberating faith : religious voices for justice, peace, and ecologicalwisdom / edited by Roger S. Gottlieb. p. cm. Includes bibliographicalreferences. ISBN 0-7425-2534-1 (alk. paper)-ISBN 0-7425-2535-X (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Religion and justice. 2. Peace-Religious aspects. 3. Environmentalism-Religious aspects. 4. Liberalism-Religious aspects. 5. Religious ethics. I. Gottlieb, Roger S. BL65.J87L53 2003 291.1’7-dc21 2003011947 Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO 239.48-1992. @m To All Those W h o Find God in Compassion and Spiritual Wisdom in the Search for Justice What does the Lord require ofyou but to dojustice, and t o love kindness, and t o walk humbly with your God? -Micah 6:8 True religion is realliving; living with all onei soul, with all one’sgoodnessand righteousness. -Albert Einstein Contents a ... xlll Preface Acknowledgments Introduction xv xvii Part I. Tradition: Ethical Roots of Spiritual SocialActivism Judaism Christianity Islam Jainism Hinduism Buddhism Confucianism Taoism “Nature” Luther Standing Bear 1 3 10 15 17 18 20 24 26 29 Part 11. Precursors of a Liberating Faith 33 35 from Women, Resistance and Revolution Sheila Rowbotham from “Women’s Speaking” Margaret Fell from ”Abuses and Uses of the Bible” Lucretia Mott “Feminist Theology, 1880-1900” Evefyn Brooks Higinbotham “Prejudice against the Colored Man” Theodore S. Wright “The Sin of Slavery and Its Remedy” Elizur Wright from Christianityand the Social Crisis Walter Rauschenbusch 38 42