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Remind & Renew Bibliography 2023: D - H

D - E

This revised edition of the popular textbook on worship by renowned hymn writer and professor Ruth C. Duck provides theological foundations for worship and explores the ways Christians have adapted worship to various cultures to help them live faithfully and to communicate the gospel to others. The author celebrates the many languages and cultural settings in which the gospel has been and is, preached, sung, and prayed. Duck discusses many different forms of worship from several cultures (African American, Asian, Euro-American) and offers advice on how to read a congregation and define its culture in order to plan culturally appropriate worship. She includes many practical suggestions for preparing and leading worship, including diverse ministries of music, movement, and visual arts that are becoming more popular today.
In Women's Work: The Transformational Power of Faith-Based Community Organizing, Susan L. Engh draws on her own experiences and those of twenty-one other women who work in the field of faith-based community organizing to describe how women have been transformed by their participation in organizing, and how they have been agents of transformation in congregations, denominations, organizations, and the public arena. This book provides a basic description of faith-based community organizing through the first-person perspectives of a diverse array of women.
Faith in Action offers quick dives into a range of topics, from racial justice to environmental concerns, from LGBTQIA equality to Native people's rights, from women's equality to disability rights, from mass incarceration to immigration. Each topic includes informative visuals and data, as well as practical suggestions for what you can do to make a difference in your community.  Created by contributors with varied experiences in activism, faith, policy, and social change, Faith in Action will give you the knowledge, tools, and confidence to make a real impact--to step out into the world and be an activist, advocate, and ally. 
How can we build a better world? And why do so many people with privilege end up making things worse when they try to help? It's called the savior mentality, and Jordan Flaherty finds it in FBI informants, anti-sex-work crusaders, Teach For America corps members, and out-of-touch journalists. No More Heroes celebrates grassroots challenges to these saviors and highlights movements focused on real, systemic change from the Arab Spring to Black Lives Matter.   

F - G

In the midst of polarized communities and nations, religious leaders across the theological spectrum are seeking help with how to respond and lead in troubled times. The need for courage to speak out and act is ever-present, because every generation faces a new set of fears and troubles.
Sacred Resistance addresses these questions, among others:
• When Christians see that something is wrong in our nation or community, how and when should we respond?
• When we see multiple instances of 'wrong', how do we choose which ones to address?
• How can pastors and other leaders faithfully take risks without violating relationships with the congregation or denomination?
• What historical, biblical, and theological safety nets can be relied on?
• How can we take care of ourselves and one another, so that our ministries and lives are sustained?
Escalated forms of harm require an equally escalated response. Yet social justice activists often have a tendency to fall into an “us vs. them,” “right vs. wrong” worldview as their tactics escalate, which can derail true social transformation and healing. In Fierce Vulnerability, author Kazu Haga argues that this binary worldview is at the heart of what is destroying our relationships and our planet, and offers a new way to create healing at all levels of society by combining the time-honored lineage of nonviolent action with the sciences of trauma healing. In answering the question, "How do I engage in efforts for change that match the intensity of the destruction of all I love--my family, my community, the planet?" Fierce Vulnerability helps us meet today's challenges with the transformational power of taking a stand without demonizing our opponents and causing further harm. 
With over 20 years of experience practicing and teaching Kingian Nonviolence, Haga offers us a practical approach to societal conflict first begun by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement, which has been developed into a fully workable, step-by-step training and deeply transformative philosophy (as utilized by the Women’s March and Black Lives Matter movements). Kingian Nonviolence takes on the timely issues of endless protest and activist burnout, and presents tried-and-tested strategies for staying resilient, creating equity, and restoring peace. An accessible and thorough introduction to the principles of nonviolence, Healing Resistance is an indispensable resource for activists and change agents, restorative justice practitioners, faith leaders, and anyone engaged in social process.
In this book, Adam Hearlson argues that Christians can say a holy "no" to oppression and injustice through the church's worship practices. "To speak the holy no," Hearlson says, "is to refuse to be complicit in the oppression and violence of the ruling power. It is the courageous critique of the present and its claims of immutability."  Hearlson draws widely from Christian history to uncover ways the church has used its traditional practices--preaching, music, sacrament, and art--to sabotage oppressive structures of the world for the sake of the gospel. He tells the stories of particular subversive strategies both past and present, including radical hospitality, genre-bending, coded speech, and apocalyptic visions.  Blending history, theory, and practice, The Holy No is both a testament to the courage of Christians who came before and an encouragement to take up their mantle of faithful subversion.
In this timely and compelling account of the contribution to immigrant rights made by religious activists in post-1965 and post-9/11 America, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo provides a comprehensive, close-up view of how Muslim, Christian, and Jewish groups are working to counter xenophobia. Against the hysteria prevalent in today's media, in which immigrants are often painted as a drain on the public coffers, inherently unassimilable, or an outright threat to national security, Hondagneu-Sotelo finds the intersection between migration and religion and calls attention to quieter voices, those dedicated to securing the human dignity of newcomers. At a time when much attention has been given to religious fundamentalism and its capacity to incite violent conflict, God's Heart Has No Borders revises our understanding of the role of religion in social movements and demonstrates the nonviolent power of religious groups to address social injustices.