About the Book
The subject of poverty is rich in meanings and associations, among them hunger, stench, disease, disfigurement, shame, revulsion, and loss. It is a topic that has preoccupied the mind and hearts of the faithful since the inception of Christianity.
In this insightful volume, Susan R. Holman blends personal memoir and scholarly research into ancient writings to illuminate the age-old issues of need, poverty, and social justice in the history of
the Christian tradition. Holman weaves together stories from late antiquity with three conceptual paradigms that can bridge the gap between historical story and modern action: sensing need, sharing
the world, and embodying sacred kingdom. In the first four chapters, the author explores how personal need influences the way that we look at the world and the needs of others. Beginning with the story of her own encounters with need and her discovery of the world of early Christian texts on poverty and religious response, the author re-tells these historical narratives in new ways, and traces their influence on post-Reformation history. The second half of the book uses a complex amalgam of
images and stories to consider several recurrent themes in any religious responses to poverty and need: poverty and gender, the dilemma of justice in material distribution, ascetic models of social
activism and contemplation, the language of human rights and the "common good," challenges of hospitality, and the role of liturgy in constructing a vision for restorative righteousness.
Tying these historical texts to modern responses to need, Holman begins with her own encounters with need and describes her discovery of the existence of never-before-translated early Christian texts on responses to poverty, hunger, and disease. Holman's embrace of the historical
perspective will prove useful in interdenominational and ecumenical dialogue on religious responses to social welfare needs. Through their sensitive exploration of nuances and tensions, these essays invite
reflection, conversation, and response for scholars and students as well as concerned laypeople across a range of Christian faith communities.
Table of Contents:
1. God Knows: Empathic Remembering ; 2. Remembering as Personal Story ; 3. Engaging Paradigms: The Shape of Early Christian Need ; 4. On Living and Telling: Crossing the Gap ; 5. Poverty and the Gendering of Empathy ; 6. Maria's Choice ; 7. On Living Crunchy and Doing Right(s) ; 8. Embodying Sacred Kingdom
About the Author :
Susan R. Holman is an academic research writer and editor at the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard School of Public Health. She is the author of The Hungry are Dying: Beggars and Bishops in Roman Cappadocia.
Review :
"Very few books manage to combine sensitive and accurate historical scholarship with deep personal engagement and indeed exposure; this is one of them. Susan Holman courageously bridges the gap between the scholarly study of early Christianity and the challenges of Christian discipleship today with a real depth of insight and no trace of romanticism about the past. A unique achievement."--Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury
"Susan R. Holman reaches into the shadows of Christian patristic history to ask questions of breathtaking immediacy. Her spirited interrogation of poverty forms a compelling personal quest laced with wry intelligence. Meticulously researched portraits bring key patristic figures and their struggles vividly before us. Her determination to seek not a solution, but a relation, to poverty shines through on every page. Her book is a rare find, the fat of guilt
and good intentions burned away in the transparency of a passionate and demanding inquiry." --Patricia Hampl, author of The Florist's Daughter
"Masterfully interweaving stories and discussions of poverty and social justice from the late antique, medieval, and modern world, Holman exposes the reality of poverty and the moral demands it places on us. With deep knowledge of the fathers, methodological sophistication, and genuine sensitivity towards the poor, she challenges us 'to cross the gap between past and present,' to bring the insights and lessons of the past forward and incorporate them into our
own efforts to fashion a more just world. Her book is a fascinating, enjoyable, and relevant read." --James E. Goehring, Professor of Classics, Philosophy, and Religion, University of Mary Washington,
Fredericksburg, VA
"Susan Holman writes like a poet keenly engaged with historical texts and contexts and alive to the problems we face today in engaging with the world's needy people. Passionately engaging the problem of society's response to the needy, she weaves a subtle and beautiful tapestry of Syrian, Greek, and Latin patristic sources, modern critical thinkers, her own experience, and many poignant stories ancient and modern. She takes us from the mind to the heart, and
compels us to respond to the sick, the hungry, and the homeless today. A model of how religious persons can retrieve their tradition to heal the world's wounds, this is a stunning book. The most
significant book I have ever read on the Christian response to the needy." --Richard Valantasis, Institute for Contemplative Living, Santa Fe, NM, and Professor of Ascetical Theology and Christian Practice, Emory University
"[God Knows There's a Need] can be seen as a reflective breathing space, a retreat between hard covers for those whose response to need is too often reduced, perforce, to filling in a local-authority grant application." --The Tablet
"[Holman's] empathetic remembrances show us how to recreate ancient Christians' responses to poverty, making them live for the church today."--Theological Studies
"An important addition to any social justice reading list."--Catholic Library World
"Provocatively thoughtful. . . [an] articulate, personally-engaged historical study."--Interpreatation
