For over a generation, conservative religion has seemed dominant in America. But there are signs of a strengthening liberal religious movement. For it to flourish, laypeople need a sense of their theological heritage. A House for Hope lays out, in lively and engaging language, the theological house that religious liberalism has inherited—and suggests how this heritage will need to be spiritually and theologically transformed. With chapters that suggest liberal religious commitment is based on common hopes and an expansive love for life, A House for Hope shows how religious liberals have countered fundamentalists for generations,and provides progressives with a theological and spiritual foundation for the years ahead.

A House for Hope: The Promise of Progressive Religion for the Twenty-first Century

Religion & Spirituality

Parker, Rebecca Ann

Buehrens, John A.

Christian Books & Bibles

Beacon Press

One of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of 2008 During their first millennium, Christians filled their sanctuaries with images of Christ as a living presence-as a shepherd, teacher, healer, or an enthroned god. He is serene and surrounded by lush scenes, depictions of this world as paradise. Yet once he appeared as crucified, dying was virtually all Jesus seemed able to do, and paradise disappeared from the earth. Saving Paradise turns a fascinating new lens on Christianity, from its first centuries to the present day, asking how its early vision of beauty evolved into a vision of torture, and what changes in society and theology marked that evolution. It also retrieves, for today, a life-affirming Christianity that the world sorely needs.

Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire

Arts & Photography

Brock, Rita Nakashima

Religious

An extraordinary personal and theological examination of what's wrong with the crucifixion In an emotionally gripping and intellectually rich combination of memoir and theology, Rita Brock and Rebecca Parker show how emphasizing Christ's obedience to God and sacrifice on the cross sanctions violence, exacerbates its effects, blesses silence about the abuse of human beings, and hinders the process of recovery—giving the fullest and most powerful critique to date of the theology of atonement. "Poignant and provocative. . . . Brock and Parker have written a book of both sorrow and hope, and a blueprint for deeper thinking about the things that matter most. . . . I will be reflecting on Proverbs of Ashes for many months to come." —Rosemary Bray McNatt, UU World "This book will anger some Christians and make others feel vindicated. . . . Parker and Brock unveil their own deep pain and suffering to build the book's backbone. They blend self disclosure with serious theology to underscore their outlook." —Cecil S. Holmes, Cleveland Plain Dealer "Provocative. . . . The authors weave theological reflections with deeply moving personal accounts of abuse and trauma, including their own experiences." —The Other Side "[Readers] cannot help but be swayed by the book's searing passion and profoundly literary style (a remarkable achievement in a coauthored work). Brock and Parker have thrown down a gauntlet that cannot be ignored." —Publishers Weekly

Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for What Saves Us

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Beacon Pr

Rebecca Parker was a young minister in Seattle when a woman walked into her church and asked if God really wanted her to accept her husband's beatings and bear them gladly, as Jesus bore the cross. Parker knew, at that moment, that if she were to answer the woman's question truthfully she would have to rethink her theology. And she would have to think hard about some of the choices she was making in her own life. When Rita Nakashima Brock was a young child growing up in Kansas, kids taunted her viciously, calling her names like "Chink" or "Jap." She learned to pretend that she did not feel the sting of scorn and the humiliation of contempt. The solitude and silence of her suffering-decreed by both her mother's Japanese culture and her father's Christian heritage-kept the wound alive. It was the gap between knowledge born of personal experience and traditional theology that led Rita Brock and Rebecca Parker to write this emotionally gripping and intellectually rich exploration of the doctrine of the atonement. Using an unusual combination of memoir and theology in the tradition of Augustine's Confessions, they lament the inadequacy of how Christian tradition has interpreted the violence that happened to Jesus. Ultimately, they argue, the idea that the death of Jesus on the cross saves us reveals a sanctioning of violence at the heart of Christianity. Brock and Parker draw on a wide array of intimate stories about family violence, the sexual abuse of children, racism, homophobia, and war to reveal how they came to understand the widespread damage being done by this theology. But the authors also undertake their own arduous and unexpected journeys to recover from violence and to assist others to do so. On these journeys they discover communities that begin to give them the strength to question the destructive ideas they have internalized, and the strength to seek out an alternative vision of Christianity, one based on healing and love. Proverbs of Ashes is both a condemnation of bad theology and a passionate search for what truly saves us.

Proverbs of Ashes : Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for What Saves Us

Hope is rising. The political tide in the United States has turned, and people across the country who have been working for years for social change and justice finally feel as though they aren't struggling alone. Yet for those who ground their social activism in progressive religious belief, it is all too easy to feel spiritually divided and isolated, daunted by the apparent dominance of religious fundamentalists in the media and politics. The impact of liberal religion is richer and more far—reaching than many know—a force for good that has inspired and supported two centuries of American social progress, from the abolition of slavery and the securing of women's rights to the present-day struggles for marriage equality, ecological responsibility, and global peace. In order to sustain our spirits and advance positive social change, progressive people need to claim the transforming power of our theological heritage. Authored by two leading progressive theologians, A House for Hope affirms that the shared hopes of religious progressives from many traditions can create a movement far stronger than fundamentalism: a liberal religious renaissance. Yet for it to flourish, progressive people must rediscover the spiritual sustenance available in the theological house our liberal forebears built, and embrace what our tradition truly holds sacred, as well as understanding what it rejects. In lively and engaging language, A House for Hope suggests that liberal religious commitment is based on expansive love for life rather than adherence to narrow dogma. With chapters that reveal the political and personal relevance of the enduring questions at the heart of this theology, A House for Hope shows how religious liberals have countered fundamentalists for generations, and provides progressives with not only a theological but also a spiritual foundation for the challenges of the twenty-first century.

A House for Hope: The Promise of Progressive Religion for the Twenty-First Century

Buehrens, John

Rebecca Ann Parker is now the president of Starr King - the Unitarian Universalist seminary at Berkeley. The collection of essays in this volume touch on a number of different issues. They are thought provoking and many of them heart wrenching. I found myself crying as I read many of the essays. Yet, as the title of the collection suggests, ultimately, the reader comes away with hope and, at least for me, a renewed dedication to engage in making the world a blessed place that is open and welcoming to all people. This is simply a remarkable set of essays and anyone who is concerned with liberal religion, diversity, or issues of social justice needs to read this volume. ( Amazon customer)

Blessing the World: What Can Save Us Now

Hardies, Robert

Skinner House Books

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