Pastoral Reflections on Global Citizenship: Framing the Political in Terms of Care, Faith, and Community [Hardcover]

This book explores the growing awareness, brought on by the recent explosion of communication technology, that all human beings are citizens of the world. Ryan LaMothe argues that this awareness comes with an urgent need to address political issues, systems, and structures at local, state, and international levels that harm human beings and our one habitat. Through the lens of pastoral theology, LaMothe analyzes the concepts of care, faith, power, and community as they are related to addressing local and global problems linked to neoliberal capitalism, racism and classism.Ryan LaMothe is professor of pastoral care and counseling at Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology.

In his book, LaMothe succeeds in giving a fresh focus on the pastoral terms of care, faith, and community. . . . This book is a must read for all pastoral theologians who are concerned with the inevitable changes in the world. Journal of Reformed Theology

In the current climate of destructive nationalism, ecological degradation, and deeply entrenched neo-liberalism in which there is little regard for the other as a full human being, LaMothe has provided a vital resource for anyone interested in the relationships between local and global politics and their implications for human (and other creatures) well-being. Pastoral Reflection on Global Citizenship examines ways nation-states, communities, and the humanly-constructed institutions that comprise and support them, function. Drawing from multiple disciplines and the critical lenses of faith (whether explicitly religious or not), care, and justice, LaMothe explicates what is often outside our awareness. Thoroughly researched, carefully nuanced, and finally persuasive, LaMothes book helps readers understand the interlocking structures, attitudes, and practices that create suffering and endanger our planetindeed our very livesand proposes alternatives. Hopeful without being na?ve, this is the right book in a crucial timl3«