Fugitive Faith

In a series of candid interviews with some of the world's most insightful thinkers Fugitive Faith provides insights on the ecological, spiritual, and social challenges we face today. Political and spiritual leaders, naturalists and scientists, writers and poets: all convey their passionate conviction about the decisive interface between nature and human spirituality, and the practical relationship of spiritual, environmental and community renewal. Most striking in Fugitive Faith is the solid note of hope that these thinkers all share. The basic elements of solutions to our problems are at hand. Taking them up is at once as simple and as difficult as incorporating them in our lives, and working to implement them strategically in society at large. For all those concerned with earth, faith, and culture, Fugitive Faith offers visions and solutions.

Examines how the dynamics emerging from the pandemic affect our most vulnerable populations and shape a new religious landscape The COVID-19 pandemic upset virtually every facet of society and, in many cases, exposed gross inequality and dysfunction. The particular dynamics emerging from the coronavirus pandemic have been felt most intensely by America’s most vulnerable populations, who are disproportionately people of color and the working poor, the people whom the Bible refers to as “the least of these.” This book makes the case that the pandemic was not just a medical phenomenon, or an economic or social one, but also a religious one. Religious practice has been altered in profound ways. Controversies around religious freedom have been re-ignited over debates concerning whether government can restrict church services. Christian white supremacists not only defied shelter in place orders, but found new ways to propagate racist attacks, with their White Christian identity fueling their reactions to the pandemic. Some religious leaders, including those in communities of color, saw the virus as an indicator of God’s wrath, or as a divine test, and viewed altering their traditional practices to mitigate the virus’s spread as a weakening of faith. Religion, Race, and COVID-19 argues that there is a religious hierarchy in US society that puts “the least of these” last while prioritizing those who benefit most from white privilege. Yet these vulnerable populations draw on theological and religious resources to contend with these existential threats. The volume shows how social transformation occurs when faith is both formed and informed during crises, offering compelling insight into the saliency and lasting impact of religiosity within human culture.

Reproduction of the original. The publishing house Megali specialises in reproducing historical works in large print to make reading easier for people with impaired vision.

Lady Anne Bacon Drury (1572-1624) devised dozens of panels comprised of pictures and Latin mottoes for the walls of her closet or study. The panels functioned as a 'book' of meditations to enable her - well-connected, wealthy, and well-educated as she was - to cope with the disappointments of her life. For the first time in 400 years, Meakin thoroughly investigates the personal, social, and intellectual contexts of Lady Drury's closet.

In her writings, Terry Tempest Williams repeatedly invites us as readers into engagement and conversation with both her and her subject matter, whether it is nature or society, environment or art. From her evocation, in Desert Quartet: An Erotic Landscape, of an eroticism of place that defines erotic as "in relation," to the spiritual connectivity and familial bonds she explores in Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place and the political engagement she urges in The Open Space of Democracy, much of her work is about relationship, connection, and community. Like much good writing, her books invite readers into thoughtful dialogue with the text. Frequently in demand for workshops, lectures, and other speaking venues and well known as an environmental activist, Williams has a public persona and voice almost indistinguishable from her written ones. Thus, the interviews she has often granted--in print, on the radio, on the Web--seamlessly elaborate the ideas and extend the explorations of her written texts. They also tell us much about the genesis, context, and intent of her books. With her distinctive, impassioned voice and familiar felicity of language, she talks about wilderness and wildlife, place and eroticism, art and literature, democracy and politics, family and heritage, Mormonism and religion, writing and creativity, and other subjects that engage her agile mind. The set of interviews gathered and introduced by Michael Austin in A Voice in the Wilderness represent the span of Terry Tempest Williams's career as a naturalist, author, and activist.

“The moon was red on the night my mother died. Fat, fairly bursting, as I remember, it rode so low in the sky that it grazed the backs of the leopards who hissed and spat and cursed it for interrupting the hunt. It caressed the thorny tips of the acacia trees, bending them, seeming to crush them with light.” In The Red Moon, newcomer Kuwana Haulsey has crafted a strikingly beautiful coming-of-age story set amid the turbulent history of modern Kenya. The novel centers on Nasarian, the daughter of a successful Samburu herdsman and his Somali fourth wife. On the verge of adulthood, Nasarian finds herself trapped between the demands of her traditional tribal life and her desire to live abroad as a writer. When her parents die suddenly, Nasarian's plan to escape her sheltered world is undermined by her scornful brother Lolorok. Disgusted by Nasarian's refusal to be circumcised and thus initiated into the traditional role of wife and mother, Lolorok allows his sister to be inherited by a distant cousin. Nasarian is convinced that no matter how hard she fights, she will never be allowed to call her life her own. She is dogged by the memory of her father, who was caught in the midst of a brutal war, branded with the name Mau Mau, imprisoned as a terrorist. She is haunted by the spirit of her mother, captured in a bloody raid and destined, like Nasarian, to be an outcast. Nasarian runs away, sparking a sweeping journey of discovery that evokes fifty years and three generations of her family history. Weaving ancient myth and folklore into the tapestry of Nasarian's personal quest, The Red Moon chronicles the yearning of a brave young woman while simultaneously depicting a nation's equally fierce search for a truthful and lasting spiritual independence. Stunning in its revelations, The Red Moon portrays incisively a way of life rarely glimpsed by those who have not experienced its richness and survived its terror. With an intensity rare in modern fiction, The Red Moon takes readers into the heart of an incredibly courageous young woman.