Theological conversations about violence typically frame the conversation in terms of victim and perpetrator. Comprehensive theological responses to violence must also address the role of collective passivity of bystanders of violence. Beyond Apathy examines the theological significance of bystander participation in patterns of violence and violation within contemporary Western culture, giving particular attention to the social issues of bullying, white racism, and sexual violence.In doing so, it constructs a theology of redeeming grace for bystanders to violence that foregrounds the significance of social action in bringing about Gods basileia.

In this work, respected scholar Andrew Lester discusses and incorporates the newest behavioral research models, contemporary biblical and theological scholarship, constructivist philosophy, and narrative theory into a comprehensive pastoral theology of anger. In revisiting through the lens of theological anthropology the very subject that brought him to the forefront of scholarship in pastoral care, Lester presents engaging new material and innovative new methods of interventions for dealing with this often-confusing human emotion.

"Reckoning: Black Lives Matter and the Democratic Necessity of Social Movements is an analysis of the emergence of the Movement for Black Lives, its organizational structure and culture, and its strategies and tactics, while also laying out and contextualizing the social movement's unique political philosophy, Radical Black Feminist Pragmatism, along with documenting measurable political effects in terms of changing public meanings, public opinion, and policy. Throughout the text, the author interweaves theoretical and empirical observations, rendering both an illustration of this movement and an analysis of the work social movements do in democracy"--

Through practical theological and anthro/gynopological methods, Insurrectionist Wisdoms: Toward a North American Indigenized Pastoral Theology offers an analysis of the situation of working-class Maya mexicanas living in Yucatán, México, working on the assembly line of a multinational corporation. Relying on in-depth, firsthand interviews, Marlene M. Ferreras brings to light the exploitation of women of color by large, multimillion-dollar corporations and delves into the ways these women can, and do, fight back. Drawing on a decolonial approach to pastoral theology and feminism, Ferreras proposes Lxs Hijxs de Maíz as an image for pastoral care and counseling.

Revised and updated edition of a best-selling leadership and ministry guide! Whether you're a pastor or church leader, says Hamman, you're called to do the following for yourself: develop a deeper sense of inner security; nurture your imagination; embrace your dark side; become aware of your emotions; see others as they really are; and engage in life with a sense of playfulness. Hamman equips you to do all of this and more. Get ready for a transformation in your personal ministry and in your relationship with God—and become the best pastor you can be!

Human hostility is not the narrative of a selected few. Since the fall of the grandparents of the human family, Adam and Eve, all humans have continued to participate in the reality of evil. Accordingly, the question is no longer whether evil will strike, but rather, when evil strikes, how should humans, particularly Christians, respond to it? This book offers a relevant and effective theology and ethics for addressing the issue of Christian response to violence in Nigeria and beyond. It situates the whole gamut of the reign of human hostility in its various manifestations: self-interest and greed for power, deception and social injustices, governmental official corruption, terrorism and so on. It encourages humans to take seriously both the fact of God creating humans good and the fall serving as the gateway of evil into the human race. It recognizes the complexity of human problems. Yet it offers possibility for just peacemaking. In spite of the horrific violence across the globe, humans are still able to do tremendous good. Thus the book recognizes the paradox of humanity: humans are capable of doing tremendous good and equally capable of doing tremendous evil.

Living Devotions explores how a particular community has creatively negotiated its religious bonds of connection in the context of immigration. These matters cannot be studied in the abstract. Religious practice is not something separate from the economic, cultural, and psychological dimensions of life, but rather something integral, which shapes and is being shaped by all of these other realities. The author examines these dynamics through an ethnographic case study of the living devotions of a group of Italian Catholic immigrants to San Pedro, California. The narrative describes how the group's historical experiences of immigration and fishing find expression in their particular forms of prayer, art, artifacts, and food. The healing and transformative power of these shared religious practices is explored. As contemporary theologians, pastors, and congregations seek to welcome and care for immigrants and other strangers in a shifting social landscape, we need ways to engage in care-full and attentive relationships. The ethnographic method employed here suggests a way to lift up the voices of ordinary people, allowing them to tell their own stories, while piecing together emerging bits of theological wisdom and compelling care practices. While the particular insights of any community are situated and specific, theological reflection in one context can animate a broader discussion of transformative pastoral theology and practice.

What if we are more multiple as persons than traditional psychology has taught us to believe? And what if our multiplicity is a part of how we are made in the very image of a loving, relational, multiple God? How have modern, Western notions of Oneness caused harm--to both individuals and society? And how can an appreciation of our multiplicity help liberate the voices of those who live at the margins, both of society and within our own complex selves? Braided Selves explores these questions from the perspectives of postmodern pastoral psychology and Trinitarian theology, with implications for the practice of spiritual care, counseling, and psychotherapy. This volume gathers ten years of essays on this theme by preeminent pastoral theologian Pamela Cooper-White, whose writings bring into dialogue postmodern, feminist, and psychoanalytic theory and constructive theology.

In Caring for Joy: Narrative, Theology, and Practice Mary Clark Moschella offers a new account of the value of joy in caregiving vocations, demonstrating how the work of caring for persons, communities, and the world need not be a dreary endeavor overwhelmed by crises or undermined by despair. Moschella presents glimpses of joy-in-action in the narratives of five notable figures: Heidi Neumark, Henri Nouwen, Gregory Boyle, Pauli Murray, and Paul Farmer, gleaning their wisdom for the construction of a theology of joy that embodies compassion, connection, justice, and freedom. Care must be deep enough to hold human suffering and spacious enough to take in the divine goodness, beauty, and love. This book expands the pastoral theological imagination and narrates joy-full approaches to transformational care. “This work is a scholarly, engaging and compassionate call to reconsider the significance of joyful living and joyful lives in radical pastoral theology.” — Heather Walton, University of Glasgow, President of the International Academy of Practical Theology, July 2016. “Based on biographies, interviews, and life stories, Mary Clark Moschella presents joy as a counter-cultural emotion, as a spiritual path, and as a fruit of the Spirit. In her research, joy and reason are not ultimately opposed.” — Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner, Professor of Pastoral Care, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, July 2016. “This highly readable and compelling theology of joy will inspire you to explore how joy might energize your vocation, especially caregiving vocations that use narrative approaches to spiritual care and pastoral counseling. I plan on using this book as a textbook in my theodicy, grief, death and dying, and vocational courses.” — Carrie Doehring, Professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling, Iliff School of Theology, Denver, August 2016 “Mary Moschella has given us a rare text, one that is theologically rich, intellectually sophisticated, drenched in pastoral wisdom, and beautifully written. She gives us a pastoral theology attuned to the realities of diversity and sensitive to the complex challenges facing those who lives constantly interface with suffering. There is simply nothing else like this book in pastoral care.” — Willie James Jennings, Professor of Systematic Theology and Africana Studies, Yale University, August 2016

Essays on Violence: Pollution, Sacrifice and Madness is an exploration of the intersecting histories of caste and violence in the Indian context foregrounding ideational and temporal continuities and deep linkages between ideas, processes and events by combing historical sources with ethnographic data. Traversing the diverse and conflicting strands in Indian traditions, it traces the centrality of the idea of violence in discourses on sacrificial violence, self, body, evil and danger and their reverberations in critical moments of Indian history. The discourse on caste violence is unpacked through analysis of concepts like danda, matsyanyaya and vadhoavadha, religious and textual exegesis of negation and demonization and historical sites to locate processes of transitions in cultures of violence via the Telangana armed uprising and imagined cartography of the incipient nation. By drawing attention to the nature of caste violence in postcolonial Andhra, the book offers glimpses into the emergence of contradictory pulls in the forging of caste identities, nationhood and the shifts in the subjectivity of outcastes within the context of repressive political culture of postcolonial democratic experience.