Tag: Books

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Field Hospital: The Church’s Engagement with a Wounded World

By William T. Cavanaugh

Pope Francis in a 2013 interview famously likened the church to a field hospital. In this book William Cavanaugh adopts Pope Francis's metaphor to show how the church can help heal both the spiritual and the material wounds of the world.

As he examines the intersection of theology with themes of religious freedom, economic injustice, religious violence, and other pressing topics, Cavanaugh emphasizes that the church cannot condemn the evils of the world from a position of superiority. Rather, he says, its practices of solidarity with humanity must be based on a profound recognition that the church shares in the guilt of human sin.

Cavanaugh's Field Hospital provides guideposts for a church that is willing to go outside of itself onto today's battlefields — both metaphorical and literal — not to inflict wounds but to bind them up and heal them.

https://www.eerdmans.com/Products/7297/field-hospital.aspx

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Promise and Peril: Understanding and Managing Change and Conflict in Congregations

By David Brubaker

Congregations cannot exist without finances, priorities, leadership, worship, and decision making, yet these five aspects breed the most conflict between church members and clergy. These conflicts unfortunately tend to bring about the most negative consequences: drops in giving, resignation of leaders, and, perhaps most pointedly, loss of members. The importance of congregations and their effect on our lives is clear, yet what is less clear is what makes conflicts in faith communities inevitable. In Promise and Peril: Understanding and Managing Change and Conflict in Congregations, David Brubaker brings the tools of organizational theory and research to the task of understanding the deeper dynamics of congregational conflict. With a doctorate in sociology and more than twenty years working with congregational conflicts, Brubaker helps to explore the causes and effects of conflicts on a wide range of congregations. This book will help congregations avoid the pitfalls of conflict and instead head toward a healthy relationship between and among church staff and members.

https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781566993821/Promise-and-Peril-Understanding-and-Managing-Change-and-Conflict-in-Congregations

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The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the Roots of Modern Conflict

By William T. Cavanaugh

The idea that religion has a dangerous tendency to promote violence is part of the conventional wisdom of Western societies, and it underlies many of our institutions and policies, from limits on the public role of religion to efforts to promote liberal democracy in the Middle East. William T. Cavanaugh challenges this conventional wisdom by examining how the twin categories of religion and the secular are constructed. A growing body of scholarly work explores how the category 'religion' has been constructed in the modern West and in colonial contexts according to specific configurations of political power. Cavanaugh draws on this scholarship to examine how timeless and transcultural categories of 'religion and 'the secular' are used in arguments that religion causes violence. He argues three points: 1) There is no transhistorical and transcultural essence of religion. What counts as religious or secular in any given context is a function of political configurations of power; 2) Such a transhistorical and transcultural concept of religion as non-rational and prone to violence is one of the foundational legitimating myths of Western society; 3) This myth can be and is used to legitimate neo-colonial violence against non-Western others, particularly the Muslim world.

https://www.oupcanada.com/catalog/9780195385045.html

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Restructuring Relations: Indigenous Self-Determination, Governance, and Gender

By Rauna Kuokkanen

Adopted in 2007, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples establishes self-determination – including free, prior, and informed consent – as a foundational right and principle. Self-determination, both individual and collective, is among the most important and pressing issues for Indigenous women worldwide. Yet Indigenous women's interests have been overlooked in the formulation of Indigenous self-government, and existing studies of Indigenous self-government largely ignore issues of gender. As such, the current literature on Indigenous governance conceals patriarchal structures and power that create barriers for women to resources and participation in Indigenous societies.

Drawing on Indigenous and feminist political and legal theory–as well as extensive participant interviews in Canada, Greenland, and Scandinavia – this book argues that the current rights discourse and focus on Indigenous-state relations is too limited in scope to convey the full meaning of "self-determination" for Indigenous peoples. The book conceptualizes self-determination as a foundational value informed by the norm of integrity and suggests that Indigenous self-determination cannot be achieved without restructuring all relations of domination nor can it be secured in the absence of gender justice. As a foundational value, self-determination seeks to restructure all relations of domination, not only hegemonic relations with the state. Importantly, it challenges the opposition between "self-determination" and "gender" created and maintained by international law, Indigenous political discourse, and Indigenous institutions. Restructuring relations of domination further entails examining the gender regimes present in existing Indigenous self-government institutions, interrogating the relationship between Indigenous self-determination and gender violence, and considering future visions of Indigenous self-determination, such as rematriation of Indigenous governance and an independent statehood.

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/restructuring-relations-9780190913281?cc=ca&lang=en&

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Transforming Conflict through Communication in Personal, Family, and Working Relationships

By Peter M. Kellett (Editor) and Thomas G. Matyók (Editor)

With a chapter by Joy Meeker

A transformational approach to conflict argues that conflicts must be viewed as embedded within broader relational patterns and social and discursive structures. Central to this book is the idea that the origins of transformation can be momentary, situational, and small-scale or large-scale and systemic. The momentary involves shifts and meaningful changes in communication and related patterns that are created in communication between people. Momentary transformative changes can radiate out into more systemic levels, and systemic transformative changes can radiate inward to more personal levels. This book engages this transformative framework by bringing together current scholarship that epitomizes and highlights the contribution of communication scholarship and communication-centered approaches to conflict transformation in personal, family, and working relationships and organizational contexts. The resulting volume presents an engaging mix of scholarly chapters, think pieces, and personal experiences from the field of practice and everyday life. The book embraces a wide variety of theoretical and methodological approaches, including narrative, critical, intersectional, rhetorical, and quantitative. It makes a valuable additive contribution to the ongoing dialogue across and between disciplines on how to transform conflicts creatively, sustainably, and ethically.

https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498515030/Transforming-Conflict-through-Communication-in-Personal-Family-and-Working-Relationships

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This Place: 150 Years Retold

By Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, Sonny Assu, Brandon Mitchell, Rachel and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley, David A. Robertson, Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair, Jen Storm, Richard Van Camp, Katherena Vermette, Chelsea Vowel

Illustrated by Tara Audibert, Kyle Charles, GMB Chomichuk, Natasha Donovan, Scott B. Henderson, Ryan Howe, Andrew Lodwick, Jen Storm

Colour by Scott A. Ford, Donovan Yaciuk

Explore the past 150 years through the eyes of Indigenous creators in this groundbreaking graphic novel anthology. Beautifully illustrated, these stories are an emotional and enlightening journey through Indigenous wonderworks, psychic battles, and time travel. See how Indigenous peoples have survived a post-apocalyptic world since Contact.

https://highwaterpress.com/product/this-place/

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Little Book of Healthy Organizations: Tools For Understanding And Transforming Your Organization

By David Brubaker and Ruth H. Zimmerman

The best way to change the world may be one organization at a time. With this ambitious claim, the authors of this highly readable primer provide insightful analysis for evaluating and improving the health of any organization. They advocate a "systems approach," which views organizations as living systems, interconnected in their various departments, and interfacing with their environments. Leaders of organizations from all sectors will find sound advice concerning the four major components of organizations — their structure, leadership, culture, and environment. Find out: What the classic dispute over "who gets the corner office" is really about. The difference between a good leader and a great one. What new hires may know about an organization that longer-term employees don't. How organizational change and conflict are not only inevitable, but survivable. Each chapter contains examples from the authors' varied experiences with organizational change and conflict, written from a spirited, hopeful approach for creating a better world. A title in The Little Books of Justice and Peacebuilding Series.

https://www.simonandschuster.ca/books/Little-Book-of-Healthy-Organizations/David-Brubaker/9781561486649

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Strangers in This World: Multireligious Reflections on Immigration

By Hussam S. Timani (Author, Editor), Allen G. Jorgenson (Editor), Alexander Y. Hwang (Editor)

With a chapter by Ray Aldred

Immigration is one of the most hotly debated topics today. But, the question involves more than politics and emotion; it includes such critical issues as law, justice, human rights, human dignity, and freedom. Strangers in This World is a collection that brings together an international consortium of scholars to reflect on the religious, political, anthropological, and social realities of immigration through the prism of the historical and theological resources, insights, and practices across an array of religious traditions. The volume, reflecting the diversity of religious cultures, is nevertheless unified in arguing that immigration is an important aspect of the major religions and is found at their core. The contributors unfold this important dimension of the religious traditions and explore the ways that the theme of immigration connects to vital points of theological reflection and practice in Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Native American religious traditions. At root, the volume is about our collective journey together as immigrant peoples who have stories and settlements to share, as well as challenges and struggles to overcome, that may be faced through the resources our many faiths offer.

https://www.amazon.com/Strangers-This-World-Multireligious-Reflections/dp/1451472978

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A Future Beyond Growth: Towards a steady state economy

By Haydn Washington (Editor) and Paul Twomey (Editor)

With a chapter by James Magnus-Johnston

There is a fundamental denial at the centre of why we have an environmental crisis – a denial that ignores that endless physical growth on a finite planet is impossible. Nature provides the ecosystem services that support our civilisation, thus making humanity unavoidably dependent upon it. However, society continues to ignore and deny this dependence.

A Future Beyond Growth explores the reason why the endless growth economy is fundamentally unsustainable and considers ways in which society can move beyond this to a steady state economy. The book brings together some of the deepest thinkers from around the world to consider how to advance beyond growth. The main themes consider the deep problems of the current system and key aspects of a steady state economy, such as population; throughput and consumerism; ethics and equity; and policy for change. The policy section and conclusion bring together these various themes and indicates how we can move past the growth economy to a truly sustainable future.

https://www.amazon.ca/Future-Beyond-Growth-Towards-economy/dp/1138953016

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The Oxford Handbook of Applied Ethnomusicology

By Svanibor Pettan (Editor) and Jeff Todd Titon (Editor)

Applied studies scholarship has triggered a not-so-quiet revolution in the discipline of ethnomusicology. The current generation of applied ethnomusicologists has moved toward participatory action research, involving themselves in musical communities and working directly on their behalf.

The essays in The Oxford Handbook of Applied Ethnomusicology, edited by Svanibor Pettan and Jeff Todd Titon, theorize applied ethnomusicology, offer histories, and detail practical examples with the goal of stimulating further development in the field. The essays in the book, all newly commissioned for the volume, reflect scholarship and data gleaned from eleven countries by over twenty contributors. Themes and locations of the research discussed encompass all world continents. The authors present case studies encompassing multiple places; other that discuss circumstances within a geopolitical unit, either near or far. Many of the authors consider marginalized peoples and communities; others argue for participatory action research. All are united in their interest in overarching themes such as conflict, education, archives, and the status of indigenous peoples and immigrants.

A volume that at once defines its field, advances it, and even acts as a large-scale applied ethnomusicology project in the way it connects ideas and methodology, The Oxford Handbook of Applied Ethnomusicology is a seminal contribution to the study of ethnomusicology, theoretical and applied.

https://www.amazon.ca/Oxford-Handbook-Applied-Ethnomusicology/dp/0199351708/