Political and Spiritual: Essays on Religion, Environment, Disability, and Justice

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Roger S. Gottlieb is internationally known for his groundbreaking studies of religious environmentalism, passionate account of spirituality in an age of environmental crisis, and enlightening vision of the role of religion in a democratic society. Political and Spiritual brings together for the first time his most powerful essays on these and related themes. The books wealth of topics includes spiritual deep ecology, ethical theory, animal rights, the Holocaust, the environmental crisis, and the experience of disabilityas well as new essays on the human meaning of technology, facing death, and a fascinating intellectual autobiography. As a whole, Political and Spiritual reveals Gottliebs unique ability to connect our collective struggles for a just, rational, and caring society with our personal strivings for contentment, wisdom, and compassion.

Reviews

When Roger Gottlieb speaks, those who care listen. Political and Spiritual shows again why his voice is so significant. It's not that Roger has all the answers, but he asks penetrating questions that come out of his own personal journey and thoughtful reflection. His insights into a range of social, political, religious, and environmental issues not only mark our times, but open us to his prescient views of our changing world. -- John Grim, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and Yale Divinity School
This book documents the political, personal, and spiritual journey of a socially committed thoughtful and intellectually honest scholar through the second half of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. As Roger Gottlieb's quest for social justice and authenticity of consciousness unfolds, concern for the natural environment reveals itself to be the embracing and unifying theme of this fascinating collection of essays. -- J. Baird Callicott, University of North Texas; author of Thinking Like a Planet: The Land Ethic and the Earth Ethic
Nuanced, balanced, complex, and realistic, Roger Gottliebs Political and Spiritual is welcome. The essays bring out tensions in our thoughts about such matters as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, animal rights vs. the benefits of medical research, and deep ecology vs. the claims of social justice. Gottlieb makes an eloquent plea for mutual respect in the face of difference without indifference in the face of evil. -- Peter S. Wenz, University Scholar, University of Illinois; emeritus professor of philosophy, University of Illinois at Springfield; adjunct lecturer, University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand
In our day of canalized research, Gottlieb has no recognized location. He deals with many topics, but not in a way that accepts compartmentalization. Instead of playing the scholar adding to the vast storehouses of value-free information so prized in the university, Gottlieb is a thinker, a true intellectual. In this book one can sample expressions of an underlying wisdom shaping reflection on numerous topics. -- John B. Cobb Jr., professor emeritus, Claremont School of Theology
For decades Roger Gottlieb has been on a philosophical and spiritual pilgrimage, pursuing a unification of political movements and spiritual values, promoting human and ecological flourishing, and advancing social and religious unity and community. The essays in this splendid book capture the heart, soul, and mind of this important thinkers valuable contributions. -- Chad Meister, Bethel College
A landmark work. The best argument I have ever seen for Jewish engagement in ecological salvation. A sensitive, convincing look back at the Holocaust, for positive benefit to all humankind. -- Jerome Gellman, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; Australian Catholic University
Crisis convenes many disciplines, a fact Gottlieb demonstrates in this book, which brings together 19 essays under the unifying theme of ecological disaster. The grouping of essays by theme results in some generalization and repetition of ideas, though the positive impact of religious institutions in response to the environmental crisis is developed throughout the book. Gottliebs experience as a religious Jew and critical theorist inform his active engagement in interreligious dialogue and friendship. The author's intellectual crisis, brought about by radical politics, is followed by reflections on ecology and the pursuit of religious environmentalism. Strong and insightful are the more personal reflections on the Holocaust and Jewish identity, particularly the relation between genocide and ecocide. The authors raising a daughter with mental and physical disabilities provides another lens through which he tries to understand moral, political, and spiritual existence in an age of technological ubiquity and ecological desecration. Readersincluding advanced undergraduateswill find useful references at the end of each essay. Environmentalists seeking inspiration and reasonable, holistic responses to the current fragmented age may benefit from delving into these essays as well. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. * CHOICE *

Author Bio

Roger S. Gottlieb is professor of philosophy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Nautilus Book Award-winning author or editor of eighteen books and more than a hundred articles. Internationally known for his work on religious environmentalism, he is contributing editor to Tikkun Magazine and writes for Patheos.com and the Huffington Post. His work has appeared in publications as varied as the Washington Post, Boston Globe, Orion Outside, and leading academic journals. His books include A Spirituality of Resistance, Liberating Faith, Marxism: 1844-1990, and the environmental fiction Engaging Voices.