For the Healing of the Nation: A Biblical Vision

by William Russell Pregeant, John Cobb (Foreword by)

Overview

For the Healing of the Nation offers a serious look at the social and political climate in the United States from a biblical perspective, emphasizing race and "otherness," economics and the environment, and institutional violence (war and capital punishment). An autobiographical thread traces the journey of a white male coming of age in the mid-twentieth-century Deep South as his evolving faith leads him to painful breaks with inherited values and standard views on controversial issues. Critical not only of both major political parties but also of centrist compromises between Right and Left, Russell Pregeant seeks a "forward" position, which he terms "ecocommunitarian," based on biblical values. His musings touch on both southern and American identities and on the nature of the biblical writings and the ways they should and should not be used in contemporary debates. Central to the entire work are discussions of how idolatrous commitments to a culture's prevalent ideologies obscure the essential demands of biblical faith.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781498235402
Publisher:	Wipf & Stock Publishers
Publication date:	04/14/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	707 KB

About the Author

Russell Pregeant is Professor of Religion and Philosophy and Chaplain Emeritus at Curry College in Milton, Massachusetts, and was frequently Visiting Professor in New Testament at Andover Newton Theological School. He is the author of several books, including Reading the Bible for All the Wrong Reasons (2011) and Encounter with the New Testament (2009).

Table of Contents

Foreword John B. Cobb ix

Preface xiii

Introduction: Trembling for My Country: A Reflection on Place 1

Part 1 "Who Is My Neighbor?" The Tragedy of Dreams Deferred

Prologue to Part 1: A Little Window on a Great Big World 7

1 A Place Reconfigured: Memories of the Mid-Twentieth-Century South 10

2 Lessons Learned: Reflecting on the Times 20

3 Adjusting the Lenses: The Bible, Race, and the Unity of Humankind 30

4 Ideology against the Bible: A Judgment on the Past 43

5 Adorning the Tombs of the Prophets: Assessing the Present 53

6 Reflections on a Sugar House: A Question of Identity 77

Part 2 "The Land is Mine": Justice in the Marketplace, Justice for the Earth, Justice in the Forum

Prologue to Part 2: Neither the Margins nor the Middle 95

7 A Miniprimer on Biblical Economics 98

8 Applying the Principles: Biblical Economics and Political Philosophies 116

9 Torah Betrayed: Current Economics in Biblical Perspective 139

10 "And God Saw That It Was Good": The Bible, Earth, and the "American Way of Life" 159

11 Vines and Fig Trees in the "Days to Come": Toward Justice, Sustain ability, and Democracy 181

12 But Can We Do It? Overcoming the Impediments 200

Part 3 "Not with Swords' Loud Clashing": Violence, Justice, and the Commonwealth of God

Prologue to Part 3: A Lifelong Struggle and a Stable Conviction 219

13 A Complex Heritage: The Bible on War, Peace, and Empire 223

14 Conquest and Imperialism in U.S. History: The Four Hundred Years' War 231

15 Conquest and Imperialism Continued: The Path to Perpetual War 246

16 Justice Untempered, Justice Denied: Courtroom, Prison, Death Row 273

Conclusion: Putting Away the Idols 299

Epilogue: Jazz, Gumbo, the Bible, and God 303

Bibliography 321