Product Description: A Ghanaian scholar of religion argues that poverty is a particularly complex subject in traditional African cultures, where holistic worldviews unite life’s material and spiritual dimensions. A South African ethicist examines informal economies in Ghana, Jamaica, Kenya, and South Africa, looking at their ideological roots, social organization, and vulnerability to global capital...read more

Product Description: Globalization is a reality in today's world, and with it comes the universalization of the influence of certain Powers and Authorities. These Authorities--Education, Law, Medicine, Technology--distance people from, and sometimes override the duties of, familial and religious connections and have generated new spheres of loyalty and practice that are touchstones for modern life as a whole...read more

In the late 20th century, the world has grown increasingly smaller because of advances in technology and the erosion of the nation-state as a political paradigm. The process of globalization―with its promises of a common culture, a common currency, and a common government―offers a new political model for the world that fosters unity and community. At the same time, however, this process threatens to destroy the values, norms, and ideals that particular cultures have wrought and established and to thereby diminish the power of each culture's unique identity. As globalization occurs, society must decide which values will be normative and what roles that social institutions like religion and education will play in selecting and fostering these values. The contributors to this volume examine both the promise and the threat of globalization using the tools of theological ethics to understand and evaluate the "social contexts of life at the deepest moral and spiritual levels." This inaugural volume of a projected four volume series, Theology for the 21st Century: God and Globalization, examines five spheres of life―economics (Mammon), political science (Mars), psychology and sexuality (Eros), the mass media and the arts (Muses), and religion―that foster normative values for society. As the writers argue, their efforts attempt to determine whether "God is behind globalization in any substantive way." Contributors to the volume include: Roland Robertson, University of Pittsburgh; Yersu Kim, UNESCO; Donald W. Shriver, Jr., New York; William Schweiker, University of Chicago; Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen, Eastern College; David Tracy, University of Chicago. Max L. Stackhouse teaches at Princeton Theological Seminary and is the author of Covenant and Commitments: Faith, Family, and Economic. Peter Paris teaches at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Product Description: Lee explores the entire scope of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s spirituality: its roots, formation, growth, nature, character, and dynamics as well as its political aspects, which were shaped by his experience and influences. Lee contends that understanding King's multifacted spirituality will enable the faithful to build the 'Beloved Community,' which he equates to the Promised Land...read more

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Product Description: This brief volume is excerpted from Peter Paris's popular and influential work The Spirituality of African Peoples on African and African American Spirituality. Paris shows how the religious and moral values of Africa have pervaded African American life and thought...read more

Contrasts the different approaches Joseph Jackson, Martin Luther King, Adam Clayton Powell, and Malcolm X have taken in dealing with the problem of racism