The American Empire and the Commonwealth of God: A Political, Economic, Religious Statement - Softcover

David Ray Griffin; John B. Cobb; Richard A. Falk; Catherine Keller

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0664230091 ISBN 13: 9780664230098

Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006

Synopsis

In this book, four distinguished scholars level a powerful critique of the rapid expansion of the emerging American empire and its oppressive and destructive political, military, and economic policies. Arguing that a global Pax Americana is internationally disastrous, the authors demonstrate how America's imperialism inevitably leads to rampant irreversible ecological devastation, expanding military force for imperialistic purposes, and a grossly inequitable distribution of goods--all leading to the diminished well-being of human communities.

About this title

About the Author:

David Ray Griffin is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Theology at Claremont School of Theology, Professor Emeritus of Religion at Claremont Graduate University, and Co-Founder of the Center for Process Studies. He is the author of Two Great Truths: A New Synthesis of Scientific Naturalism and Christian Faith, and coauthor, with John B. Cobb Jr., of Process Theology: An Introductory Exposition. Author of numerous books in philosophy of religion, he has also published two popular books on the World Trade Center attacks: The New Pearl Harbor: Distubing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11 and The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions.

John B. Cobb Jr. has held many positions including Ingraham Professor of Theology at the Claremont School of Theology, Avery Professor at the Claremont Graduate School, Fullbright Professor at the University of Mainz, and Visiting Professor at Vanderbilt, Harvard, and Chicago Divinity Schools. His writings include Christ in a Pluralistic Age: God and the World; and, with coauthor Herman Daly, For the Common Good, which was cowinner of the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order.

Richard A. Falk is Albert G. Milbank Professor Emeritus of International Law and Practice at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. His books include The Great Terror War, Religion and Human Global Governance, and Human Rights Horizons. Falk is an Honorary Member of the Board of Editors of the American Journal of Internation Law and a Member of the Editorial Board of The Nation and The Progressive.

Catherine Keller, Professor of Constructive Theology in the Theological and Graduate Schools of Drew University, teaches and writes across a wide range of contemporary theological and religious studies. Keller's books include God and Power: Counter-Apocalyptic Journeys and On the Mystery: Discerning God in the Process.

From Publishers Weekly:

What do you get when you put three theologians together with an attorney? Not a joke, but a deadly serious, academic analysis of our nation, its past and its future. This collection of nine essays addresses the ideological and practical evidence and consequences of what the authors see as an often disguised imperial agenda inherent in the founding and development of the United States. The authors, besides sharing the conviction that the United States "is seeking to become the world's first borderless empire" whose imperialist policies constitute "the primary threat to the survival of the human species," share an affinity for the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead. While they object to imperialism on "political, economic and ecological grounds" as well as on "religious-spiritual-moral grounds," they spend most of the book making their secular statement; only the last three essays speak directly of religion. Keller's contribution contains a particularly interesting "debate" between the people she calls "Bush-Doctrine Idealists and the great idol-smasher John Calvin." Students of American history, government and political science, will feel quite at home within these pages, but nonacademics may need to dust off their college texts to remember the particulars of, say, the Marshall Plan. (June)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0664230091
• ISBN 13: 9780664230098
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 184