Transcending Greedy Money: Interreligious Solidarity for Just Relations(New Approaches to Religion and Power)

This major work offers an historical description and systematic analysis of the root causes of this global economic crisis, which the authors understand as a crisis of western civilization. Secondly, they assume (and prove) that the religions of the Axial Age were shaped by the suffering of people, deepened by the emergence of a new economy - based on money, private property and interest. They assume that the proven convergence of the Axial Age religions in responding to the social, psychological (and already ecological)

Table of Contents:
Foreword Introduction PART I: FOUNDATIONS FOR A RELATIONAL CULTURE OF LIFE IN THE AXIAL AGE: RESISTING LIFE-KILLING ANCIENT AND MODERN CIVILIZATIONS 1. Introduction 2. The Emergence and Development of Division of Labor, Money, Private Property, Empire and Male Domination in Ancient and Modern Civilizations 3. The Socio-psychological Effects of the Money Civilization on the Different Classes 4. The Judeo-Christian Tradition in the Axial Age 5. Buddhism in the Axial Age 6. Islam, a Renewal of the Axial Age Spirituality 7. Classical Greek Philosophy PART II: CRITIQUE OF MODERNITY AND CRITICAL THINKING 8. Introduction 9. The Basic Characteristics of Modernity 10. Functional Mechanisms, Efficiency and the Trivialization of the World 11. The Irrational of the Rationalized: A Methodological Commentary on Instrumental Rationality and its Award of Absolute Supremacy 12. In the Face of Globalization: The Return of the Repressed Subject 13. A Critical Theory and Critique of Mythical Reason PART III: VISION AND PRAXIS OF INTERRELIGIOUS SOLIDARITY FOR LIFE IN JUST RELATIONS TODAY 14. The Vision of Life in Just Relations 15. Alternative Political Economy: Transformation Strategy and Praxis 16. Interreligious Solidarity Practice for Life in Just Relations today: A New Axial Age? Conclusion

About the Author :
Ulrich Duchrow is professor of systematic theology at the University of Heidelberg. Franz Hinkelammert is one of the co-founders of the influential Departamento Ecumenico de Investigaciones in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Review :
"Ulrich Duchrow and Franz Hinkelammert's Transcending Greedy Money is a timely, pertinent and brilliant analysis and critique of modernity and western civilization. The current economic crisis and the consistent and continuing impoverization of people requires a courageous and alternative strategy to combat global greed and neoliberalism which produces suffering, loss, and exclusion. Duchrow and Hinkelammert chart a way forward by casting a critical eye on the modern economic system based on money, private property, and interest, and persuasively argue that religion can be a proactive impetus and liberatory mechanism for social movements and faith communities to forge a new future outside the shadow of neoliberal economics. This volume is indispensable reading for anyone concerned about socio-economic equality in a world dominated by profit and greed." - Farid Esack, Professor and Head, Department of Religion Studies, University of Johannesburg, South Africa "Transcending Greedy Money: Interreligious Solidarity for Just Relations is a brilliant challenge to the materialism and selfishness that have accompanied the triumph of capitalist values in many contemporary religious traditions. Duchrow and Hinkelammert confront the misuse of the Bible to condone acts of injustice and destructive violence, the spread of the property-money-interest economy, coupled with imperial political structures, leading to increased material and psycho-spiritual suffering in advanced capitalist societies, and show how these very conditions are leading to new and potentially revolutionary developments that may bring us closer to the world both religious and secular people yearn for and spiritual progressives fight for! Challenging the spiritual void in leftist thinking, this book is indispensable for any religious or spiritual person who wants to see the world healed and transformed." - Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun Magazine www.tikkun.org, chair of The Network of Spiritual Pr "A critic of modernity without falling into postmodernism, with Biblical, Buddhist and Islamic contributions, to build a new paradigm of collective human life on the planet." - Francois Houtart, Fundacion Pueblo Indio del Ecuador "Transcending Greedy Money: Interreligious Solidarity for Just Relations is a brilliant challenge to the materialism and selfishness that have accompanied the triumph of capitalist values in many contemporary religious traditions. Duchrow and Hinkelammert confront the misuse of the Bible to condone acts of injustice and destructive violence, the spread of the property-money-interest economy, coupled with imperial political structures, leading to increased material and psycho-spiritual suffering in advanced capitalist societies, and show how these very conditions are leading to new and potentially revolutionary developments that may bring us closer to the world both religious and secular people yearn for and spiritual progressives fight for! Challenging the spiritual void in leftist thinking, this book is indispensable for any religious or spiritual person who wants to see the world healed and transformed." - Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun Magazine www.tikkun.org, chair of The Network of Spiritual Progressives, and author of 11 books, most recently Embracing Israel/Palestine "A CRITIC OF MODERNITY WIHOUT FALLING IN POSTMODERNISM, WITH BIBLICAL, BUDDHIST AND ISLAM CONTRIBUTIONS, TO BUILD A NEW PARADIGM OF COLLECTIVE HUMAN LIFE ON THE PLANET." - Francois Houtart, Fundacion Pueblo Indio del Ecuador