Overview

An important new volume showcasing a wide range of faith-based responses to one of today's most pressing social issues, challenging us to expand our ways of understanding. Land of Stark Contrasts brings together the work of social scientists, ethicists, and theologians exploring the profound role of religion in understanding and responding to homelessness and housing insecurity in all corners of the United States-from Seattle, San Francisco, and Silicon Valley to Dallas and San Antonio to Washington, D.C., and Boston. Together, the essays of Land of Stark Contrasts chart intriguing ways forward for future initiatives to address the root causes of homelessness. In this way they are essential reading for practical theologians, congregational leaders, and faith-based nonprofit organizers exploring how to combine spiritual and material care for homeless individuals and other vulnerable populations. Social workers, nonprofit managers, and policy specialists seeking to understand how to partner better with faith-based organizations will also find the chapters in this volume an invaluable resource. Contributors include James V. Spickard, Manuel Mejido Costoya and Margaret Breen, Michael R. Fisher Jr., Laura Stivers, Lauren Valk Lawson, Bruce Granville Miller, Nancy A. Khalil, John A. Coleman, S.J., Jeremy Phillip Brown, Paul Houston Blankenship, Maria Teresa Davila, Roberto Mata, and Sathianathan Clarke. Co-published with Seattle University's Center for Religious Wisdom and World Affairs

Full Product Details

Author:   Manuel Mejido Costoya ,  Paul Houston Blankenship-Lai ,  Margaret Breen ,  Jeremy Brown
Publisher:   Fordham University Press
Imprint:   Fordham University Press
ISBN:  

9780823293957

ISBN 10:   0823293955
Pages:   384
Publication Date:   06 April 2021
Audience:   General/trade ,  Professional and scholarly ,  General ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

Introduction Manuel Mejido Costoya | 1 Part I: Public Religion and Community Revitalization Talking About Homelessness: Shifting Discourses and the Appeal to Religion in America's Seventh-Largest City James V. Spickard | 49 Becoming More Effective Community Problem Solvers: Faith-Based Organizations, Civic Capacity, and the Homelessness Crisis in Puget Sound Manuel Mejido Costoya and Margaret Breen | 72 Disenfranchising the Unhoused: Urban Redevelopment, the Criminalization of Homelessness, and the Peril of Prosperity Theology in Dallas and Beyond Michael R. Fisher Jr. | 117 Religious Responses to Homelessness in the San Francisco Bay Area: Addressing White Supremacy and Racism Laura Stivers | 140 Homelessness and Health in Seattle: Challenges and Opportunities of Faith-Based Services Lauren Valk Lawson | 162 Part II: Religious Worldviews and the Common Good Reimagined Homelessness and Coast Salish Spiritual Traditions: Cultural Resources for Programmatic Responses in British Columbia Bruce Granville Miller | 193 In These United States, Homelessness Is Who You Are: Examining a Socially Constructed Category through the Lens of an Interfaith Encounter in Downtown Boston Nancy A. Khalil | 214 Religion and Civic Activism Reconsidered: Situating Faith-Based Responses to Homelessness John A. Coleman, S.J. | 226 On the Passionality of Exile in Medieval Kabbalah: An Invitation to Historicize Contemporary Religious and Public Discourses on Homelessness Jeremy Phillip Brown | 250 Part III: Theological Insights for Homeless Ministries Wounds of Love: Spiritual Care and Homelessness in the Streets of Seattle Paul Houston Blankenship | 277 Making Spirits Whole: Homeless Ministries as a Tool for Integral Development Maria Teresa Davila | 297 And I Saw Googleville Descend from Heaven : Reading the New Jerusalem in Gentrified Latinx Communities of Silicon Valley Roberto Mata | 316 Offensive Wisdom: Homeless Neighbors, Bible Interpretation, and the Abode of God in Washington, D.C. Sathianathan Clarke | 331 Acknowledgments | 351 List of Contributors | 353 Index | 357

Reviews

"This is a remarkable book; remarkable for its candour in providing, alongside a recognition of their importance and influence, a frank assessment of the shortcomings and limitations of faith-based organisations that provide homelessness services in the USA.-- ""European Journal of Homelessness"" The interfaith, interdisciplinary, and multicultural approach of this volume and the consistently high quality of the essays make it a valuable educational resource.-- ""Theological Studies"" Land of Stark Contrasts offers a much-needed inter-disciplinary exploration of the theme of homelessness through the lens of religious studies and theology. Unlike many texts that speak of the poor or marginalized in abstraction, this volume clearly expresses the concrete realities of homelessness in the United States and current efforts to combat it. This is a powerful effort to destigmatize homelessness and decriminalize the homeless population through a study of religious ethics and faith-based communities.---Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado, The University of Scranton This may well be the very best collection of essays ever assembled treating religious responses to contemporary street homelessness. If we are ever to address adequately the ensemble of social problems that perpetuate homelessness even in affluent societies, the solutions we implement will be rooted in both sound research and genuine religious motivation. This volume sheds abundant light on both of these realities, and deserves the highest recommendation.---Thomas Massaro, SJ, Professor of Moral Theology, Fordham University"

Land of Stark Contrasts offers a much-needed inter-disciplinary exploration of the theme of homelessness through the lens of religious studies and theology. Unlike many texts that speak of the poor or marginalized in abstraction, this volume clearly expresses the concrete realities of homelessness in the United States and current efforts to combat it. This is a powerful effort to destigmatize homelessness and decriminalize the homeless population through a study of religious ethics and faith-based communities. -- Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado, The University of Scranton This may well be the very best collection of essays ever assembled treating religious responses to contemporary street homelessness. If we are ever to address adequately the ensemble of social problems that perpetuate homelessness even in affluent societies, the solutions we implement will be rooted in both sound research and genuine religious motivation. This volume sheds abundant light on both of these realities, and deserves the highest recommendation. -- Thomas Massaro, SJ, Professor of Moral Theology, Fordham University

This may well be the very best collection of essays ever assembled treating religious responses to contemporary street homelessness. The reader encounters revealing accounts of faith-based concern and advocacy for the homeless, with depictions of geographically specific challenges and of the suffering of demographic groups disproportionately affected by this hardship. If we are ever to address adequately the ensemble of social problems that perpetuate homelessness even in affluent societies, the solutions we implement will be rooted in both sound research and genuine religious motivation. This volume sheds abundant light on both of these realities, and deserves the highest recommendation.--Thomas Massaro, SJ, Professor of Moral Theology, Fordham University Land of Stark Contrasts offers a much-needed inter-disciplinary exploration of the theme of homelessness through the lens of Religious Studies and Theology. Unlike many texts that speak of the poor or marginalized in abstraction, this volume clearly expresses the concrete realities of homelessness in the United States and current efforts to combat it. This is a powerful effort to destigmatize homeless and decriminalize the homeless population through a study of religious ethics and faith-based communities.--Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado, The University of Scranton

This may well be the very best collection of essays ever assembled treating religious responses to contemporary street homelessness. The reader encounters revealing accounts of faith-based concern and advocacy for the homeless, with depictions of geographically specific challenges and of the suffering of demographic groups disproportionately affected by this hardship. If we are ever to address adequately the ensemble of social problems that perpetuate homelessness even in affluent societies, the solutions we implement will be rooted in both sound research and genuine religious motivation. This volume sheds abundant light on both of these realities, and deserves the highest recommendation.--Thomas Massaro, SJ, Professor of Moral Theology, Fordham University

Author Information

Manuel Mejido Costoya has worked for the United Nations in Geneva and Bangkok and has held teaching and research appointments in Chile, Switzerland, and the United States.

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