Suchergebnisse

Front cover -- Half title -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Contents -- Foreword by Tomeu Estelrich -- Simone Weil Bibliography and Abbreviations Used -- English Translations of Simone Weil -- Introduction -- From the Translator -- 1. Timeline and Profile -- 2. Encountering the Poor -- 3. Christic Mysticism and the Exodus of Self -- 4. A Paradoxical Testimony -- Conclusion: A Witness for Difficult Times -- Appendix I: Letter to Georges Bernanos (1938) -- Appendix II: Love (III) -- Appendix III: Letter to Maurice Schumann -- Appendix IV: Come With Me (Prologue) -- Bibliography -- Back cover

"During the past century, an enormous effervescence of events changed the sociopolitical configuration of the world. The interpretation of these facts helped further deepen the crisis in which modern thought already found itself--and it generated the uncertain and unstable environment in which we live today, the so-called postmodernity, late modernity, or hypermodernity. In this context, one of the most profound impacts is most certainly the one on religion. During the twentieth century, religion proved not to be banished from the human horizon as the masters of suspicion intended. Known as the godless century, the twentieth century saw also a resuscitation of the search for the sense of life and spirituality. With the crisis of modern reason, humankind turned toward consumerism and provisional and "light" practices. The last century represents not only the height of the postmodernization process but also the rescue of the transcendent and absolute, even if it is an absolute without face and identity. It is in this scenario that religious experiences, apparently exiled by modern rationality, begin to occur and multiply again. Mystical experiences will be, then, the basis for highlighting recurrent characteristics with universal import. But they will show a different configuration than before. One will be able to find them not in so-called sacred spaces but in very secular ones; not so much within institutions but at the borders, or even outside them; not configured by a specific tradition but in an interface that makes more than one tradition meet and dialogue."--

People worldwide find themselves part of overlapping communities of identity and belonging--racial, political, cultural, sexual, ideological. Some identities, like brand loyalties, are chosen; some, like class identity, are imposed. As followers of Jesus Christ, those called to live in between the age that is and the age to come, Christians ask what it means to be part of the body of Christ, God's new creation from among the nations, in a world filled with other nations.'Who--and whose--are we?'There is no easy answer, no time at which Christians got it completely right. Yet such questions must be addressed, and the stakes are high. Matters of war and peace, exclusion and inclusion, who starves and who does not, the credibility of the gospel itself--all are caught up in the whirl of identities, allegiances imposed or refused, and questions about what'the church'might possibly mean in such circumstances. In this book, a distinguished group of scholars from five continents asks,'How can the church respect the diversity of its members--many nations, cultures, and communities--while maintaining a coherent witness to the kingdom of God that is not undermined by more parochial ideologies or priorities?'