Political and Spiritual

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.

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. Gottlieb’s 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 author’s 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. Readers—including advanced undergraduates—will 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.

• IntroductionPART I SPIRIT, JUSTICE, NATUREThe Transcendence of Justice and the Justice of Transcendence Deep Ecology and the Left: An Effort at ReconciliationEthics and Trauma Can we talk (about animal rights)? PART II THE PROMISES OF RELIGIOUS ENVIRONMENTALISMReligious Environmentalism: What it is, where it’s heading, and why we should be going in the same direction You gonna be here long? Religion and Sustainability All in the Same Boat? Religious Diversity and Religious Environmentalism, Deep Ecology and World Religion: A Shared Fate, A Shared TaskEarth 101PART III HOLOCAUST, ECOCIDE, JEWISH EXPERIENCESome Implications of the Holocaust for Ethics and Social Philosophy, “The human material is too weak” Justice in a Time of MadnessWhat Difference Does it Make that we’re Jewish? Global Climate Change and Transformations in Jewish Self-Understanding, The Occupation: A Fable, Three Commentaries, PART IV DISABILITY AND HUMANITYThe Tasks of Embodied Love: Moral Problems in Caring for Children with DisabilitiesDisability and Social Justice One Truth Faith (with Bill J. Leonard)PART V TECHNOLOGY AND DEATHWhat are we Doing Here? A Song sung by the Universe Acknowledgments and Sources