Daniel C. Maguire - Böcker

As the global population continues to grow, family planning is fast becoming one of the most critical issues facing the planet. While many organizations--most prominently the United Nations--are trying to implement policies that will help curb the population explosion, these measures are frequently blocked by those professing conservative religious beliefs. In many of the world's religions there is a restrictive and pro-natalist view on family planning, and this is one legitimate reading of those religious traditions. As the essays in this volume demonstrate, however, this is not the only legitimate or orthodox view. Seeking to counteract the simplistic idea that all religions are completely antagonistic toward family planning, the authors--all scholar-practitioners of the religions about which they write--present alternative interpretations of religions' views about family planning. Arguing for the existence of equally valid traditions that allow contraception and abortion, they seek to escape the confines of oversimplified either/or, pro-choice/pro-life arguments. Instead, they point the way forward toward a more open discussion of family planning. Dispelling the notion that the world's religions are uniformly conservative on issues of family planning, the authors show that the parameters of orthodoxy are wider and gentler than that, and that the great religious traditions are wiser and more variegated than a simple repetition of the most conservative views would suggest.

A radical new look at the religious, economic, and political roots of terracide and how things can change for the better.This book offers an original assessment of the crisis caused by the combined impact of overpopulation, overconsumption, and economic and political injustice. It summons religious scholarship into urgent dialogue with the other disciplines and with the world's policymakers. The authors seek a new understanding of religion and its power since, for good or for ill, the world's religions will be players in the crises relating to population and the threat of ecocide. Two-thirds of the world's people affiliate with these religions and the other third cannot escape the influence of these symbol-filled cultural powerhouses.Ethics for a Small Planet offers complementary studies by two major social ethicists on these issues. Daniel C. Maguire indicts our male-dominated religions for the problems they have caused for our ecology and reproductive ethics. He raises the controversial questions of whether the very concept of God is a problem and whether Christianity's notions of afterlife and a divinized male have done more harm than good. Larry L. Rasmussen also recognizes that the problems of our planet are largely male-made and rich-dominated. He writes that Europeans packaged a form of earth-unfriendly capitalism and shipped it all over the world with missionary zeal. He ably scans the long history that led to the current manic rush to push the earth beyond its limits, and goes on to suggest moral norms and policy guidelines for sustainable communities and genuinely shared power.Both authors argue that there are positive and renewable moral energies in the world's religions and that unless religion, understood as a response to the sanctity of life, animates our ethical debates, the prospects for the world are grim. The sense of the sacred is presented here as the nucleus of the good and the only force that can bring about the lifestyle changes and power reallocations that are necessary to prevent terracide.

A radical new look at the religious, economic, and political roots of terracide and how things can change for the better.This book offers an original assessment of the crisis caused by the combined impact of overpopulation, overconsumption, and economic and political injustice. It summons religious scholarship into urgent dialogue with the other disciplines and with the world's policymakers. The authors seek a new understanding of religion and its power since, for good or for ill, the world's religions will be players in the crises relating to population and the threat of ecocide. Two-thirds of the world's people affiliate with these religions and the other third cannot escape the influence of these symbol-filled cultural powerhouses.Ethics for a Small Planet offers complementary studies by two major social ethicists on these issues. Daniel C. Maguire indicts our male-dominated religions for the problems they have caused for our ecology and reproductive ethics. He raises the controversial questions of whether the very concept of God is a problem and whether Christianity's notions of afterlife and a divinized male have done more harm than good. Larry L. Rasmussen also recognizes that the problems of our planet are largely male-made and rich-dominated. He writes that Europeans packaged a form of earth-unfriendly capitalism and shipped it all over the world with missionary zeal. He ably scans the long history that led to the current manic rush to push the earth beyond its limits, and goes on to suggest moral norms and policy guidelines for sustainable communities and genuinely shared power.Both authors argue that there are positive and renewable moral energies in the world's religions and that unless religion, understood as a response to the sanctity of life, animates our ethical debates, the prospects for the world are grim. The sense of the sacred is presented here as the nucleus of the good and the only force that can bring about the lifestyle changes and power reallocations that are necessary to prevent terracide.

Brings together world religion scholars and creative international economists to address the current eco-crisis.One of the most significant topics of our time is the current eco-crisis of overpopulation, overconsumption (often called "affluenza"), and environmental degradation. In Visions of a New Earth, eight world religion scholars and two creative international economists address these linked problems by bringing religious perspective into conversation with economics. They conclude that religion and other cultural forces must be mobilized to force humankind toward an epochal birthing of bio-reverence. Traditions discussed include Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Chinese, Native American, and African religions.Contributors include Nawal H. Ammar, Harold Coward, Rita M. Gross, Catherine Keller, Paul F. Knitter, David C. Korten, David R. Loy, Daniel C. Maguire, Alberto Múnera, S.J., Vasudha Narayanan, Jacob K. Olupona, Chün-fang Yü, and Laurie Zoloth.

Men from a wide range of traditions discuss gender justice in world religions.What Men Owe to Women brings together a distinguished group of male scholars to address gender justice in world religions. It includes contributions representing a wide range of traditions: Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Taoism, Buddhism, and African and Native American religions. This book acknowledges the patriarchal overload of these traditions and institutes a creative search for the helpful, but neglected, resources of the traditions themselves. The contributors show how these resources support the economic and political empowerment of women and assist a rethinking of gender relations in terms of genuine mutuality. In addition they share information on their own lives and those of the women in their families that illuminate the discussion.The book builds upon the enormous international feminist literature that has indicted the religions of the world for their insensitivity to women and their sacralization of sexism. It then looks into the causes of the fear that underlies much sexism and studies the distortion of religious symbols that supports sexism and masks men's obligations.Contributors include, Marvin M. Ellison, Asghar Ali Engineer, Farid Esack, Ze'ev W. Falk, Christopher Ronwanièn:te Jocks, Daniel C. Maguire, Mutombo Nkulu-N'Sengha, Tavivat Puntarigvivat, John C. Raines, Gerard S. Sloyan, Anantanand Rambachan, and Liu Xiaogan.

Argues that Christianity does not require its supernatural aspects.Christianity without an omnipotent god, without a divine savior, without an afterlife? In this bold and hopeful book, theologian Daniel C. Maguire writes that traditional, supernatural aspects of Christianity can be comforting, but are increasingly questionable. A century of scholarly research has not been supportive of the dogmatic triad of personal god, incarnate savior, and life after death. Demonstrating that these beliefs have questionable roots in historical traditions, Maguire argues for a return to that brilliant and revolutionary moral epic of the Hebrew and Christian Bible. Rescued from god, Christianity can offer a realistic global ethic to heal a planet sinking under the effects of our ungrateful mismanagement.