THIS strong collection of scholarly essays by 18 university teachers from the United States, the UK, Canada, Australia, Ireland, and Germany explores the wide-ranging interactions between (mostly Western) Christianity and “nature”, “creation”, “the environment”.
Books
Review: Marching to a Silent Tune
Some people are called to stand up and say “Hell, No” to war, despite the personal cost. Set against the backdrop of the turbulent 1960s, this remarkable memoir details the author’s experience as a conscript in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. Jerry Gioglio relates with compelling honesty his struggles to understand and embody his working-class , Catholic upbringing while responding to civil rights challenges, the military draft, and the dehumanizing aspects of military training.
Addressing Modern Slavery
Addressing Modern Slavery provides important insights into the complexities that perpetuate slavery in a contemporary context, long after it was officially abolished. This book confronts the dark side of development that comes with intractable, complex, multi-tiered global supply chains. In particular, it highlights that global supply chains not only link us to modern slavery, but frequently generate the preconditions necessary for modern slavery to flourish in industries such as agriculture, manufacturing and mining, which account for the majority of slaves in the world. Governments can also be complicit: while modern slavery can be connected to companies and consumers through supply chains, there are also governments that actively promote and benefit from slave labour.
Christianity’s American Fate: How Religion Became More Conservative and Society More Secular
How did American Christianity become synonymous with conservative white evangelicalism? This sweeping work by a leading historian of modern America traces the rise of the evangelical movement and the decline of mainline Protestantism’s influence on American life. In Christianity’s American Fate, David Hollinger shows how the Protestant establishment, adopting progressive ideas about race, gender, sexuality, empire, and divinity, liberalized too quickly for some and not quickly enough for others.
Atmasiddhi Shastra
Atmasiddhi Shastra (Six Spiritual Truths of the Soul) is the work of Srimad Rajchandra of India. It is a simple question-and answer work that engages a conversation between a doubter and a teacher (a guru) about the nature of the soul. Rajchandra was guru to Mahatma Gandhi. The book has forewords given by the XIV Dalai Lama and the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi.
Interreligious Heroes – Role Models and Spiritual Exemplars for Interfaith Practice
The Elijah institute announces a new book in the Interreligious Reflections series, presenting inspirational leaders in Interreligious relations. This volume was conceived as a tribute to Elijah board member and contemporary interreligious hero, Rabbi David Rosen, on the occasion of his seventieth birthday.
A Rabbi writes: Two Books That Lifted My Spirits in the Time of COVID
On this day of the Jewish New Year – Rosh Hashannah – Religions for Peace Australia greets the Jewish Community with Shanah Tovah!!!, (meaning ‘have a good year). To celebrate Rosh Hashannah in time of Lockdown, we bring you the writing of one Jewish Rabbi who found his spirits uplifted with two books … during lockdown.
Peace in The Age of Chaos: The Best Solution for a Sustainable Future
The much-anticipated book by renowned businessman, global philanthropist and peacebuilder, Steve Killelea, A.M., offers a new and accessible understanding of peace: one that is measureable, resilient and above all, achievable in a time of chaos.
Zealot: A Book about Cults
Jo Thorneley is an Australian writer and the host of a comic podcast, ‘Zealot’. She asserts that she has an obsession about cults, and that is, no doubt, correct. Her book about the zealots who generally establish and profit in one way or another from cults is written in a witty, colloquial, stream-of-consciousness style. It aims to be – and succeeds in being – highly entertaining. It has no pretensions towards being learned or scholarly, but it is well researched and beguilingly thought-provoking.
American JewBu: Jews, Buddhists, and Religious Change
Anyone involved in Buddhism today will nod in agreement upon hearing the claim that there has been a surprising number of Jews in modern Western Buddhism. This is particularly true for Buddhism in North America: not only has Buddhism been a popular choice among people from a Jewish background, but a seemingly disproportionate number have become leading lights of Western Buddhism, and have played a major role in shaping its evolution. It is quite natural to ask the question, why? What’s the connection?
Review: Embracing Auschwitz
I have a cynical friend who claims that there have been more books written about the Holocaust than there were people who perished in it. That is, no doubt, an exaggeration, but it is true that most of the books on this subject sound very much alike. Joshua Hammerman’s Embracing Auschwitz (Ben Yehuda Press) deserves our attention because it is by far the most original book on this subject that has come along in a great many years.
The Lost Art of Scripture
In our increasingly secular world, holy texts are at best seen as irrelevant, and at worst as an excuse to incite violence, hatred and division. So what value, if any, can scripture hold for us today? And if our world no longer seems compatible with scripture, is it perhaps because its original purpose has become lost? Read with Karen Armstrong as she explores the value of scripture in an increasingly secularised world and ponders whether we’ve lost our ability to engage with faith texts as spiritual tools rather than binding rules.
Book Review – What is a Madrasa
The prospects for peace in Afghanistan, dialogue between Washington and Tehran, the UN’s bid to stabilise nuclear-armed Pakistan, understanding the largest Muslim minority in the world’s largest democracy in India, or the largest Muslim population in the world in Indonesia – all require some knowledge of the traditional religious sectors in these countries and of what connection traditional religious schooling has (or not) to their geopolitical situations. Here, Adis Dujerija of Griffith University, Queensland, writes one book review.
Book Review: The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: What Everyone Needs to Know
The title of Professor Dov Waxman’s new book, The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: What Everyone Needs to Know, hides an important tension that gets explained in the course of reading this book, which addresses a most complex and confusing topic.
The conflict is not unitary. The make-up of the two sides has changed over time. From 1948-1972, it was known as the “Arab-Israeli” conflict. It involved the entire region and was not solely focused on the Palestinian question; the surrounding Arab states had territorial goals as well.
Buddhism without Beliefs
At interfaith gatherings Buddhists are wheeled out to present their views on everything from nuclear weapons to the ordination of women and then scheduled to drone Tibetan chants at the evening slot for collective worship. This transformation of Buddhism into a religion obscures and distorts the encounter of the dharma with contemporary agnostic culture. The dharma in fact might well have more in common with Godless secularism than with the bastions of religion.
From Victims to Suspects: Muslim Women Since 9/11
The so-called War on Terror, in its many incarnations, has always been a war with gender at its heart. Once regarded as helpless victims waiting to be rescued, Muslim women are now widely regarded by both Muslim and non-Muslim disciplinarians as a potential threat to be kept under control. How did this shift in attitudes come about? Read about the conversations with Australian women the author has undertaken.
Many yet One? Multiple Religious Belonging
Religions are often thought of as distinct and competing traditions, but the phenomenon of people belonging to multiple religious traditions is widespread, according to a World Council of Churches (WCC) publication presented during the European Academy of Religion in Bologna, Italy.
Josie Lacey – An Inevitable Path
In her autobiography, Josie Lacey tells of a remarkable life and the influence her ancestors had upon her. Some of her family were trapped in the Holocaust; others, like Josie, migrated to Australia. Here, Josie tells of her almost breathless life, with no time to lose.
