Around the world, thousands of grassroots movements are confronting issues like destruction of the environment, economic depression, human rights violations, religious fundamentalism, and war. This book tells the courageous story of one such group. Organizing in 1939, Northern Baptists formed the Baptist Pacifist Fellowship as part of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Southern Baptists formed a parallel body. Like today, it was a time when sources of hope seemed hard to find. Discerning a need to support and connect Baptist conscientious objectors in the United States, members faced hostility in congregations and the nation. For the duration of the Second World War, the Korean War, war in Vietnam and elsewhere, Baptists sustained a witness for peace and justice. By 1984, threat of nuclear weapons led to formation of a wider circle of resistance to the culture of war. Subsequently, the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America has brought together Baptist peacemakers from around North America and the world. However small in numbers or reviled, members have been building a culture of peace through an interracial and international community. This book is an invaluable resource for those seeking a new world of forgiveness, respect for human rights, nonviolence, and peace.
In the 1930s, German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer anticipated the restoration of the church after the coming second world war through a new kind of monasticism, a way of life of uncompromising adherence to the Sermon on the Mount in imitation of Christ. Since then, the renewal of Christian monasticism has become a great spiritual movement. Imbued with a love for God and neighbor, and with a healthy self-love, people are going to monasteries to deepen their relationship with God, to pray, and to find peace. While some monastic institutions are suffering a decline in traditional vocations, many Christians are exploring monastic lifestyles. This book introduces The Community of the Transfiguration in Australia, the story of a new monastic community and an inspiring source of hope for the world at another time of spiritual, social, and ecological crisis.
Thomas Merton was arguably the twentieth century's most widely published and widely read spiritual writer. This book explores Merton's prophetic writings and experience as they offer guidance for spiritual seekers in their search to experience God, to simplify their lives, to live more humanly, and to shape Christian community in the face of alienation, consumerism, noise, and technology. The book includes parts of three previously unpublished conference contributions by Merton on technology.