Since at least the high point of the civil rights movement, African American Christianity has been widely recognized as a potent force for social change. Most attention to the political significance of Black churches, however, focuses on domestic protest and electoral politics. Yet some Black churches take a deep interest in the global issue of Israel and Palestine. Why would African American Christians get involved—and even take sides—in Palestine and Israel, and what does that reveal about the political significance of “the Black Church” today? This book examines African American Christian involvement in Israel and Palestine to show how competing visions of “the Black Church” are changing through transnational political engagement. Considering cases ranging from African American Christian Zionists to Palestinian solidarity activists, Roger Baumann traces how Black religious politics transcend domestic arenas and enter global spaces. These cases, he argues, illuminate how the meaning of the ostensibly singular and unifying category of “the Black Church”—spanning its history, identity, culture, and mission—is deeply contested at every turn. Black Visions of the Holy Land offers new insights into how Black churches understand their political role and social significance; the ways race, religion, and politics both converge and diverge; and why the meaning of overlapping racial and religious identities shifts when moving from national to global contexts.

Black Natural Law offers a new way of understanding the African American political tradition. Iconoclastically attacking left (including James Baldwin and Audre Lorde), right (including Clarence Thomas and Ben Carson), and center (Barack Obama), Vincent William Lloyd charges that many Black leaders today embrace secular, white modes of political engagement, abandoning the deep connections between religious, philosophical, and political ideas that once animated Black politics. By telling the stories of Frederick Douglass, Anna Julia Cooper, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Martin Luther King, Jr., Lloyd shows how appeals to a higher law, or God's law, have long fueled Black political engagement. Such appeals do not seek to implement divine directives on earth; rather, they pose a challenge to the wisdom of the world, and they mobilize communities for collective action. Black natural law is deeply democratic: while charismatic leaders may provide the occasion for reflection and mobilization, all are capable of discerning the higher law using our human capacities for reason and emotion. At a time when continuing racial injustice poses a deep moral challenge, the most powerful intellectual resources in the struggle for justice have been abandoned. Black Natural Law recovers a rich tradition, and it examines just how this tradition was forgotten. A Black intellectual class emerged that was disconnected from social movement organizing and beholden to white interests. Appeals to higher law became politically impotent: overly rational or overly sentimental. Recovering the Black natural law tradition provides a powerful resource for confronting police violence, mass incarceration, and today's gross racial inequities. Black Natural Law will change the way we understand natural law, a topic central to the Western ethical and political tradition. While drawing particularly on African American resources, Black Natural Law speaks to all who seek politics animated by justice.

Revised edition. Volume 1 of 5. The Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible has been a classic Bible study resource for more than thirty years. Now thoroughly revised, this new five-volume edition provides up-to-date entries based on the latest scholarship. Beautiful full-color pictures supplement the text, which includes many new articles in addition to thorough updates and improvements of existing topics. Different viewpoints of scholarship permit a well-rounded perspective on significant issues relating to doctrines, themes, and biblical interpretation. The goal remains the same: to provide pastors, teachers, students, and devoted Bible readers with a comprehensive and reliable library of information.• More than 5,000 pages of vital information on Bible lands and people• More than 7,500 articles alphabetically arranged for easy reference• Hundreds of colorful maps, illustrations, charts, and graphs• Scholarly articles ranging across the entire spectrum of theological and biblical topics, backed by the most current body of archaeological research• Over 250 contributors from around the world• Introductions to each book of the Bible• Bibliographies and helpful cross-references

The Planet's Most Spiritual Places presents the 100 most important faith and spiritual sites from all over the world.

Robert J Rowland, A.K.A. ( Squirrelly ) Al Hajji Omowalle Alif Abdul Rakiem, Which means The first son, who has return home a servant of God, the writer, who has made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Al Hajji the poet, songwriter and Manager, was born in Mayfield , Kentucky and raised in E. Palo Alto California. He now resides in Nashville, TN. He went back to college and received his Bachelor of Science in Business Management at Mid-Continent University in. Mayfield, KY. Al Hajji creative side goes back to his first musical group in California called the Ambassadors, a five man singing group, with showman ship and harmonies that drew much applause in local talent shows and nightclubs in the San Francisco Bay area. He left California after High school and attended Tennessee State University in Nashville, TN., on a baseball scholarship. At TSU , he developed his poetry and songwriting skills, and was a member of the Natural Experience singing group, where he played percussion. He also co-founded the Poets and Songwriters Association of TSU, which is still a charter organization on campus. Al Hajji also was a member of the Total Experience Record Company, where he signed and artist and songwriting contract. There he befriended the Gap Band, Yarborough & Peoples, Goodie, Val Young, Lonnie Simmons and Don Alexander the owners. Over the years he has been active in the music industry, giving workshop on writing and the business end of music. Singing at weddings and receptions and work with Alicia 4bia Cherry as a personal manager, where he became friends With the late Lisa Left Eye Lopes ( N.I.N.A. ) Raina ( Raindrop) Lopes, Kisha Spivey of the group Total and the girl group Egypt. May God have Mercy on our world

An A-to-Z resource providing short biographical essays on 100 Native American spiritual figures, from well known figures such as Sitting Bull and Black Elk, to lesser known spiritual leaders such as Wovoka and Quanah Parker; along with suggestions of print and electronic sources for further reading.