Download or read book Blue Collar Resistance and the Politics of Jesus written by Tex Sample and published by Abingdon Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To be faithful to the gospel, all ministry must be indigenous; it must participate in the distinctive practices and perspectives of the people among whom ministry is taking place. Because our society tends to ignore or deny the reality of class divisions and prejudice, too many congregational leaders know too little about the world of working class whites. Continuing his groundbreaking work on class and American religion, Sample opens up the lives and lifestyles of working class whites in order to engage with them in authentic and transformational ministry. From the Circuit Rider review: "Tex Sample has written one of the most fun books to read on ministry that you will ever come across. Weaving philosophy, theology, country western lyrics, and stories throughout the book Sample at once delights and provokes us to think about the way in which we live out church in this day and age." (Click here to read the whole review.)

Download or read book White Working Class With a New Foreword by Mark Cuban and a New Preface by the Author written by Joan C. Williams and published by Harvard Business Press. This book was released on 2019-11-05 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "It is really worth a read..." -- Former Vice President Joe Biden, interviewed on Pod Save America Now in paperback with a new Foreword by Mark Cuban and a new Preface by the author, White Working Class explains why so much of the elite's analysis of the white working class is misguided, rooted in class cluelessness. Joan C. Williams, described as having "something approaching rock star status" by the New York Times, explains that many people have conflated "working class" with "poor"--but the working class is, in fact, the elusive, purportedly disappearing middle class. They often resent the poor and the professionals alike. But they don't resent the truly rich, nor are they particularly bothered by income inequality. Their dream is not to join the upper middle class, with its different culture, but to stay true to their own values in their own communities--just with more money. While white working-class motivations are often dismissed as racist or xenophobic, Williams shows that they have their own class consciousness. White Working Class is a blunt, bracing narrative that sketches a nuanced portrait of millions of people who have proven to be a potent political force. For anyone stunned by the rise of populist, nationalist movements, wondering why so many would seemingly vote against their own economic interests, or simply feeling like a stranger in their own country, White Working Class will be a convincing primer on how to connect with a crucial set of workers--and voters.

Download or read book Reception History and Biblical Studies written by Emma England and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-05-21 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do we begin to carry out such a vast task-the examination of three millennia of diverse uses and influences of the biblical texts? Where can the interested scholar find information on methods and techniques applicable to the many and varied ways in which these have happened? Through a series of examples of reception history practitioners at work and of their reflections this volume sets the agenda for biblical reception, as it begins to chart the near-infinite series of complex interpretive 'events' that have been generated by the journey of the biblical texts down through the centuries. The chapters consider aspects as diverse as political and economic factors, cultural location, the discipline of Biblical Studies, and the impact of scholarly preconceptions, upon reception history. Topics covered include biblical figures and concepts, contemporary music, paintings, children's Bibles, and interpreters as diverse as Calvin, Lenin, and Nick Cave.

Download or read book White Working Class written by Joan C. Williams and published by Harvard Business Press. This book was released on 2017-05-16 with total page 151 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "I recommend a book by Professor Williams, it is really worth a read, it's called White Working Class." -- Vice President Joe Biden on Pod Save America An Amazon Best Business and Leadership book of 2017 Around the world, populist movements are gaining traction among the white working class. Meanwhile, members of the professional elite—journalists, managers, and establishment politicians--are on the outside looking in, left to argue over the reasons. In White Working Class, Joan C. Williams, described as having "something approaching rock star status" by the New York Times, explains why so much of the elite's analysis of the white working class is misguided, rooted in class cluelessness. Williams explains that many people have conflated "working class" with "poor"--but the working class is, in fact, the elusive, purportedly disappearing middle class. They often resent the poor and the professionals alike. But they don't resent the truly rich, nor are they particularly bothered by income inequality. Their dream is not to join the upper middle class, with its different culture, but to stay true to their own values in their own communities--just with more money. While white working-class motivations are often dismissed as racist or xenophobic, Williams shows that they have their own class consciousness. White Working Class is a blunt, bracing narrative that sketches a nuanced portrait of millions of people who have proven to be a potent political force. For anyone stunned by the rise of populist, nationalist movements, wondering why so many would seemingly vote against their own economic interests, or simply feeling like a stranger in their own country, White Working Class will be a convincing primer on how to connect with a crucial set of workers--and voters.

Download or read book Facing Social Class written by Susan T. Fiske and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2012-03-05 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many Americans, holding fast to the American Dream and the promise of equal opportunity, claim that social class doesn't matter. Yet the ways we talk and dress, our interactions with authority figures, the degree of trust we place in strangers, our religious beliefs, our achievements, our senses of morality and of ourselves—all are marked by social class, a powerful factor affecting every domain of life. In Facing Social Class, social psychologists Susan Fiske and Hazel Rose Markus, and a team of sociologists, anthropologists, linguists, and legal scholars, examine the many ways we communicate our class position to others and how social class shapes our daily, face-to-face interactions—from casual exchanges to interactions at school, work, and home. Facing Social Class exposes the contradiction between the American ideal of equal opportunity and the harsh reality of growing inequality, and it shows how this tension is reflected in cultural ideas and values, institutional practices, everyday social interactions, and psychological tendencies. Contributor Joan Williams examines cultural differences between middle- and working-class people and shows how the cultural gap between social class groups can influence everything from voting practices and political beliefs to work habits, home life, and social behaviors. In a similar vein, Annette Lareau and Jessica McCrory Calarco analyze the cultural advantages or disadvantages exhibited by different classes in institutional settings, such as those between parents and teachers. They find that middle-class parents are better able to advocate effectively for their children in school than are working-class parents, who are less likely to challenge a teacher's authority. Michael Kraus, Michelle Rheinschmidt, and Paul Piff explore the subtle ways we signal class status in social situations. Conversational style and how close one person stands to another, for example, can influence the balance of power in a business interaction. Diana Sanchez and Julie Garcia even demonstrate that markers of low socioeconomic status such as incarceration or unemployment can influence whether individuals are categorized as white or black—a finding that underscores how race and class may work in tandem to shape advantage or disadvantage in social interactions. The United States has one of the highest levels of income inequality and one of the lowest levels of social mobility among industrialized nations, yet many Americans continue to buy into the myth that theirs is a classless society. Facing Social Class faces the reality of how social class operates in our daily lives, why it is so pervasive, and what can be done to alleviate its effects.

Download or read book Bible In and Popular Culture written by Philip Culbertson and published by Society of Biblical Lit. This book was released on 2010-10-10 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In popular culture, the Bible is generally associated with films: The Passion of the Christ, The Ten Commandments, Jesus of Montreal, and many others. Less attention has been given to the relationship between the Bible and other popular media such as hip-hop, reggae, rock, and country and western music; popular and graphic novels; animated television series; and apocalyptic fantasy. This collection of essays explores a range of media and the way the Bible features in them, applying various hermeneutical approaches, engaging with critical theory, and providing conceptual resources and examples of how the Bible reads popular culture—and how popular culture reads the Bible. This useful resource will be of interest for both biblical and cultural studies. The contributors are Elaine M. Wainwright, Michael Gilmour, Mark McEntire, Dan W. Clanton Jr., Philip Culbertson, Jim Perkinson, Noel Leo Erskine, Tex Sample, Roland Boer, Terry Ray Clark, Steve Taylor, Tina Pippin, Laura Copier, Jaap Kooijman, Caroline Vander Stichele, and Erin Runions.

Download or read book Reshaping the Work Family Debate written by Joan C. Williams and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2012-05-07 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States has the most family-hostile public policy in the developed world. Despite what is often reported, new mothers don’t “opt out” of work. They are pushed out by discriminating and inflexible workplaces. Today’s workplaces continue to idealize the worker who has someone other than parents caring for their children. Conventional wisdom attributes women’s decision to leave work to their maternal traits and desires. In this thought-provoking book, Joan Williams shows why that view is misguided and how workplace practice disadvantages men—both those who seek to avoid the breadwinner role and those who embrace it—as well as women. Faced with masculine norms that define the workplace, women must play the tomboy or the femme. Both paths result in a gender bias that is exacerbated when the two groups end up pitted against each other. And although work-family issues long have been seen strictly through a gender lens, we ignore class at our peril. The dysfunctional relationship between the professional-managerial class and the white working class must be addressed before real reform can take root. Contesting the idea that women need to negotiate better within the family, and redefining the notion of success in the workplace, Williams reinvigorates the work-family debate and offers the first steps to making life manageable for all American families.

Download or read book Everyone Must Eat written by Mark L. Yackel-Juleen and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2021-12-07 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rural contexts are often over-looked, treated as "flyover land." But because everyone must eat, rural communities and their work in food production are important to the whole of society. Mark Yackel-Juleen spent many years in rural ministry and is the founder and executive director of Shalom Hill Farm. He offers valuable insight on the present issues of food production and environmental sustainability, and connects it in profound and practical ways to the biblical and theological tradition. The result is a clear set of powerful and actionable tools to help rural leaders and ministers address issues of sustainability and land use in their ministry. Everyone Must Eat masterfully shows how one can integrate the sociology of community, the secular realities of economics and public policy, and the powerful presence of God's word in order to practice faithful leadership.

Download or read book Working Class Rage written by Prof. Tex Sample and published by Abingdon Press. This book was released on 2018-09-04 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: White working-class people are the canary in the mine. Poorly understood and perceived as a threat to the common good – unintelligent, self-destructive, utterly incapable of leveraging their own privilege - white working-class people have recaptured the cultural and political imagination in the wake of the 2016 presidential election. Pundits, politicos, cultural commentators, party leaders and many others are scrambling to understand what makes this demographic tick with mixed results. Scape-goated for all things racist and identified as the voting block that gave the country its most divisive leader in a generation, they are not what they seem: so much more than common xenophobes and red-hat wearing nostalgics for a lost time of white supremacy, this group begs for a richer, more nuanced portrait if they are to be loved and impacted by Christian faith and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Tex Sample, acclaimed author of White Soul and Hard Living People, is a reliable and reader-friendly guide through the current literature with keen eye on the implications of understanding this group so pastors and leaders can better communicate the Good News of Jesus and work for a more just society that values black and white lives and creates the partnerships that lead to the good life for all. This book also describes how our inability to sustain attention to the value of black lives is a traveling companion to our failure to understand or care about the pain and anger of working class whites. Calling Christians (individuals, as well as communities of faith) to a concrete version of social well-being befitting faithful life in Jesus and God’s vision of justice for the world, Tex Sample drills deeper into the realities of a group of people whose suffering and anger is denied, ignored, or misunderstood. The conclusion? Working for real-world, Gospel-centered change (spiritual, social, political, cultural) requires a field guide to the people we too often stereotype or misunderstand. They can be partners when we frame a message of hope built on a sense of vocation to life in Jesus – the good life for all.

Download or read book Courage to Bear Witness written by L. Edward Phillips and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2009-04-15 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To be a follower of Jesus means to bear witness to the truth of God. In an age when so many contemporary voices portray faith as a form of personal therapy, Gene L. Davenport, Professor Emeritus of Religion at Lambuth University, has consistently reminded us in his own witness that the truth of the Gospel entails confrontation with the world that dwells in darkness. These essays in honor of Davenport address the meaning of witness in the face of racism, sexism, and religious bigotry, to name but some of the forms this darkness takes. The topics range from emerging forms of prayer to religious themes in cowboy music, from the work of white pastors in Mississippi during the growing Civil Rights Movement to the meaning of the Righteous Gentile in Jewish-Christian friendship. Contributors: D. Brent Laytham Randy Cooper Stanley Hauerwas Billy Vaughan James T. Laney Kenneth L. Carder M. Douglas Meeks Phyllis Tickle L. Edward Phillips Tex Sample Cindy Wesley Joseph T. Reiff Margaret J. Meyer Charles Mayo

Download or read book Constructing Solidarity for a Liberative Ethic written by T. Day and published by Springer. This book was released on 2012-11-09 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Constructing Solidarity offers a critical path toward the transformation of white worldviews, theologies, ethics, and praxis for scholars, activists, religious leaders, and those seeking guidance.

Download or read book Earthy Mysticism written by Prof. Tex Sample and published by Abingdon Press. This book was released on 2010-09-01 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book, says the author, is “a testimony of narratives where [a] strange God appears. Such appearances supply the mystical states that have come to shape my life. I am not helped much by conventional approaches to spirituality. I find it almost impossible to do ‘devotions.’ Daily Bible study in the sense of devoting twenty to thirty minutes a day never worked for me. I cannot get around to scheduled times for prayer on my knees with head bowed. I find labyrinths and prayer beads boring. I am ever and again distracted in silent meditation. I simply cannot sustain a spirituality based in such things. “I do not regard myself as unusual or special. My hunch, and it is more than that, is that a host of people will recognize themselves in what I describe here. What is here is, clearly, my story, but it is not about me. It is about a God of surprises, of One who comes in the ordinary and the seamy. It is about a God who will goose you. It is about mystical moments when clearly the only thing that finally matters is this God who will never leave us alone, especially in the ordinary and angular places of life. It is, I hope, a spirituality for unspiritual people.” From the Circuit Rider review: "Tex Sample’s new book, Earthy Mysticism: Spirituality for Unspiritual People, simultaneously says a whole lot and very little about the subject of mysticism. The word “mysticism” itself only shows up in the introduction and the last chapter, bracketing the book with a concept that Sample doesn’t fully define or even directly reflect on the meaning of. That being said, Sample never claims to be writing a scholarly view of what mysticism might be, but instead attempts to show how one can recognize the presence of the holy in everyday life. In this he succeeds powerfully." (Click here to read the entire review.)

Download or read book We Must Speak written by Larry Hollon and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2012-07-28 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We Must Speak: Rethinking How We Communicate About Faith in the 21st Century Pray that I may declare (the message) boldly, as I must speak. - Ephesians 6:20 In We Must Speak, Larry Hollon addresses the communications crisis in mainline denominations and sounds a call to action for the church: Speak out in todays digital culture or risk irrelevance. Communications technology is connecting people in unprecedented ways, yet many mainline churches have been slow to adapt and have continued to lose members and status. Other voices and messages are filling the void, offering superficial entertainment and consumerism as poor substitutes for the good news of the church. By embracing communications ministry, churches can transform their communities, change lives and be the presence of Christ for a hurting world. Hollon shares success stories, a theologically grounded vision, and specific steps for local congregations and denominations to tap the power of communications. Larry Hollon sets out the case for why we need to maintain our voice in a world crowded with competing messages and often destructive values. - Mike McCurry, former White House press secretary

Download or read book Wendell Berry and Religion written by Joel James Shuman and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2009-11-09 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Farmer, poet, essayist, and environmental writer Wendell Berry is acclaimed for his ideas regarding the values inherent in an agricultural society. Place, community, good work, and simple pleasures are but a few of the values that form the bedrock of Berry's thought. While the notion of reverence is central to Berry, he is not widely known as a religious writer. However, the moral underpinnings of his work are rooted in Christian tradition, articulating the tenet that faith and stewardship of the land are not mutually exclusive. In Wendell Berry and Religion, editors Joel J. Shuman and L. Roger Owens probe the moral and spiritual implications of Berry's work. Chief among them are the notions that the earth is God's provisional gift to mankind and that studying how we engage material creation reflects important truths. This collection reveals deep, thoughtful, and provocative conversations within Berry's writings, illuminating the theological inspirations inherent in his work.

Download or read book Reset the Heart written by Dr. Mai-Anh Le Tran and published by Abingdon Press. This book was released on 2017-05-02 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the #BlackLivesMatter protest movement burst into dynamic action following the shooting death of young Michael Brown in the fall of 2014 in Ferguson, MO, a good number of clergy and lay leaders in greater St. Louis sprang to action and learned anew what it took to “put some feet to their prayers.” However, as improvisational efforts continued to rally and organize churches toward the enduring work of confronting the insidious violence of systemic social injustices in their own backyard, these religious leaders ran head-on into a familiar yet perplexing wall: the incapacity and unwillingness of their faith communities to respond. In many cases, the resistance was (and still is) fierce, eerily reminiscent of the stand-offs that divided religious communities and leadership in the 1960s Civil Rights era. If the Church’s teaching, learning, and practice of faith is purportedly transformative, then where was/is that faith when it was/is needed most? If good religious formation had been happening - or had it? - then why the enduring signs of indifference, paralysis, apathy, exasperation, resistance, symptoms of anesthetized moral consciousness and debilitated hope in the face of pervasive social-cultural violence? The answer may come in a searing indictment: that in an emerging cultural-religious era in which religious identity, expression, and experience are increasingly pluralistic, yet also politicized, polarizing, and racialized, Christian faith communities—even those of progressive theological persuasions—are still held under dominant cultural captivity, and fashioned by colonizing teaching strategies of “disimagination” – such that the stories (theologies) and rituals (practices) of the faith have effectively become obstacles that anesthetize moral agency and debilitate courageous action for hope and change. This book addresses the above practical concerns with three paradigmatic questions: 1. What does it mean to educate for faith in a world marked by violence? 2. How are Christian faith communities complicit in the teaching and learning of violence? 3. What renewed practices of faith and educational leadership yield potential for the unlearning and unmaking of violence? An organizing thesis drives the inquiry: Thinking and teaching for violence-resisting action as Christians requires an on-purpose setting of our hearts in a world that violates and harms with impunity. Against violent “disimagination”and its conscience-numbing instruments, Christian religious communities are being challenged to regenerate radical forms of prophetic, protested faith, the skills and instincts of which must be honed deliberately. This occurs through intentional and strategic forms of public consciousness raising for the sake of participation and action - an action that moves toward and is fueled by critical, insurrectional, resurrectional, hope.

Download or read book The Pew and the Picket Line written by Christopher D. Cantwell and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2016-03-30 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Pew and the Picket Line collects works from a new generation of scholars working at the nexus where religious history and working-class history converge. Focusing on Christianity and its unique purchase in America, the contributors use in-depth local histories to illustrate how Americans male and female, rural and urban, and from a range of ethnic backgrounds dwelt in a space between the church and the shop floor. Their vivid essays show Pentecostal miners preaching prosperity while seeking miracles in the depths of the earth, while aboveground black sharecroppers and white Protestants establish credit unions to pursue a joint vision of cooperative capitalism. Innovative and essential, The Pew and the Picket Line reframes venerable debates as it maps the dynamic contours of a landscape sculpted by the powerful forces of Christianity and capitalism. Contributors: Christopher D. Cantwell, Heath W. Carter, Janine Giordano Drake, Ken Fones-Wolf, Erik Gellman, Alison Collis Greene, Brett Hendrickson, Dan McKanan, Matthew Pehl, Kerry L. Pimblott, Jarod Roll, Evelyn Sterne, and Arlene Sanchez Walsh.

Download or read book Building the Good Life for All written by L. Shannon Jung and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 2017-09-14 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The well-being of those who are financially secure depends on the well-being of those who are not, those who fall into the working poor, or Asset-Limited, Income-Constrained, Employed (ALICE). We are interdependent both materially and spiritually and are diminished by the extent to which we do not flourish together. In Building the Good Life for All, L. Shannon Jung explores four strategies for mutual flourishing: charity, self-help, cultural value formation, and government action. Rather than theorizing on the causes of people's poverty, the chapters demonstrate how these transformational strategies work and how others can participate in them. Discussion questions with each chapter help groups process what they are learning and how they can apply these strategies personally and in their community. Designed to be read and discussed in seven sessions, this book encourages the social ministry of churches and the community development of neighborhoods. Churches and community groups will find themselves revitalized through this study and through enacting its strategies to help their neighbors.