Love and Care for the Marginalized is a 40-day meditational for Catholics based on reflections from popes, saints, religious leaders, movie quotes, and others on how God speaks to each of us about the importance of outreaching to those who have been hurt, rejected, and marginalized. Whether you are on the giving or receiving end in terms of marginalization, we have all experienced the world's treatment of those who are uncared for and unloved. Each meditation includes a quote, reflection, a prayer, and a call to action. The book is based on the command of Christ in the Biblical book of Matthew 25 where Jesus talks about the importance of loving and caring for those in greatest need and acting on their behalf. This book will help the reader to reflect upon the importance of making a difference for those who are alone, rejected and forgotten. The book was born out of much reflection, thought and most of all, prayer.

The issue of wealth and poverty and its relationship to Christian faith is as ancient as the New Testament and reaches even further back to the Hebrew Scriptures. From the beginnings of the Christian movement, the issue of how to deal with riches and care for the poor formed an important aspect of Christian discipleship. This careful study shows how early Christians adopted, appropriated, and transformed the Jewish and Greco-Roman moral teachings and practices of giving and patronage. As Helen Rhee illuminates the early Christian understanding of wealth and poverty, she shows how it impacted the formation of Christian identity. She also demonstrates the ongoing relevance of early Christian thought and practice for the contemporary church.

The sacred-secular divide permeates our churches, our seminaries, and our lives. By perpetuating the false belief that there are some areas of life that are not important to God, some callings that are second-class, and some spheres of society that are not worth engaging, the sacred-secular divide diminishes our understanding of God, discipleship, missiology, and the gospel itself. Seeking to liberate the global church from the power of this dichotomy, Whole-Life Mission for the Whole Church provides theological educators with the tools they need to combat the sacred-secular divide in the very realm where it is so often generated: the classroom. Filled with contributions from practitioners around the world, this book contains a wealth of insight into both the nature of the problem and the possibilities for its solution. The approaches suggested here are biblically rooted, contextually appropriate, and experientially tested, offering an excellent resource for educators desiring to transform their institutional cultures, curriculums, and classrooms into environments that envision, empower, and liberate the whole church for its role in the mission of God.

The problem this project addresses is the sense of marginalization experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) and same-sex attracted (SSA) Christian college and university students. Data was collected via an online questionnaire and the study design mixed methods with an emphasis on the qualitative data. The study sample included eighty students/alumni from thirty-two Christian colleges/universities. Generally, respondents felt lonely, hid their sexuality, and reported a negative campus climate. Recommendations from respondents include: institutional policies must be clearer and applied consistently, improve campus climate, and form support groups for LGB and SSA students.

What is radical about providing loving care? The radical concept is that each and every caregiver in today's hospitals should be providing loving care to their patients and to each other. In the same vein, each and every leader in our hospitals should be taking care of those who care for others. This work addresses healthcare leaders through illustrative examples and compelling outcomes that demonstrate the success of the Healing Hospital model in today's hospital. Training tools are also provided to help leaders and employee partners construct and advance a culture of loving care in today's technocratic hospital setting.

Current debates around participation and marginalization dominate the agenda of many European political forums. There is an increasing concern about the stability of social cohesion and a growing number of particular groups of people who are regarded as being at risk of being socially excluded or marginalized. This volume goes beyond the surface of public discussions to look at the central role played by welfare services in European societies in either strengthening or hindering participatory citizenship and democracy. In current discussions welfare services - understood in a broad sense - are centrally positioned: there are high expectations that welfare services can hinder marginalization and enable participation. Yet marginalization is, in most cases, rooted in the deeper structures of society, with economy, participation and involvement dependent on political or highly personal factors, which are beyond the scope of welfare services. This groundbreaking volume posits that participation and marginalization are ’twin’ concepts, expressing opposing sides of one and the same processes faced by individuals and communities. It will be essential reading for social workers, sociologists and policy-makers throughout Europe.

This book calls attention to ways of fostering dialogue among members of different religious traditions in an era of cultural and religious pluralism. To achieve this, the author analyzes the results of an ethnographic study of Ihievbe, a town in Midwestern Nigeria that is religiously pluralistic. Emphasis is given to hospitality and friendship—two key relational, cultural, philosophical, and theological virtues—as tools for constructing healthy interreligious dialogue that is relevant for our times. A critical study is done on the importance of these two dialogical virtues in the religious expressions of Roman Catholicism, Islam, and Ihievbe Traditional Religion. Preference for ethnographic studies is based on stressing the relevance of context in articulating useful practices of interreligious dialogue. Finally, the book articulates ways the fruits of interreligious dialogue can be celebrated in the liturgical rituals of each religion, especially the three religions that are addressed here.